
Class __H&Ai£ 



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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



INTESTINAL 
IRRIGATION 



OR 



WHY, HOW, AND WHEN TO 
FLUSH THE COLON 



TREATED IN CONNECTION WITH OTHER MATTERS 

OF PHYSIOLOGICAL INTEREST AND 

IMPORTANCE 



BY 



ALCINOUS B. JAMISON, M.D. 

AUTHOR OF " INTESTINAL ILLS," " HOW TO BECOME 
STRONG," ETC. 



Published by the Author 



NEW YORK CITY 

43 West Forty-fifth Street 

1903 






THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

AUG 12 '903 

Copy right Entry 
CLASS cl. XXc. H; 

s i u a t 

COPY B. 





y 



^ 



% 



Copyright, 1903 

BY 

ALCINOUS B. JAMISON 



• » • » 



Ube IRnicfterbocfter press, IRew ItJorfc 



j 



Even from the Body's Purity, the Mind 
Receives a secret sympathetic aid." 

— Thomson. 



PREFACE. 

AXHTHIN the last two decades the diagnosis 
" and treatment of bowel troubles have been 
greatly changed through improved instruments, 
technique, hygienic measures, and various remedial 
agents. 

The domain of surgery of the anus, rectum, etc., 
has been surprisingly limited, and that of gastro- 
intestinal hygiene enlarged, together with knowl- 
edge of man's assimilative and eliminative organs. 
Systemic and local hygiene has supplanted drugs 
and surgery in the treatment of diseases of the 
anus, rectum, sigmoid flexure, and vermiform ap- 
pendix. Indeed, the domain of surgery will be 
restricted to what are still considered incurable 
diseases if the suggestions of this volume are 
widely adopted. From a clinical experience ex- 
tending over a period of twenty-three years, how- 
ever, — as a specialist in diseases of the anus, 
rectum, and intestinal machinery generally, — the 
author feels warranted in maintaining that, if hy- 
gio-therapic measures were taken by both physi- 
cians and laymen, surgical clinics and hospitals 



Preface 

for "operating" on anal and rectal diseases and 
the administering of countless medicinal reme- 
dies would enter the stage of therapeutic oblivion. 

The present work is more comprehensive in its 
.scope than its title, Intestinal Irrigation, would 
-at first thought seem to indicate. It is a practical 
■book on home relief for all the symptoms of that 
form of internal inflammation known as proctitis 
and colitis. The measures that may safely be 
taken by the victim himself, without consulting a 
physician, are minutely explained ; and, that he 
may understand his own case, every chapter goes 
more or less extensively into anatomical, physio- 
logical, and pathological details. 

The author has kept abreast of the advancement 
of science in relation to his special branch of the 
healing art, and as the outcome of his large daily 
experience in this line he feels qualified to speak 
with authority. Victims of any of the symptoms 
described in this book may therefore have confi- 
dence in its statements. It conveys a message of 
common sense to the world at large and to the vic- 
tims of intestinal ills in particular. It is a compi- 
lation of clinical talks to the author's patients, 
making plain a variety of symptoms arising from 
a single primary cause. 

As the purpose of the book is pre-eminently 



VI 



Preface 

practical, the author felt warranted in describing 
minutely his own clinics, so far as any patient 
could apply the results to his individual needs. 
This, therefore, is the author's excuse for intro- 
ducing- his own appliances and describing their 
features and uses. Certain work must be done 
by the sufferer himself, and no other invention in 
the market will aid him so materially in doing this 
work scientifically and efficiently. 

Furthermore, it • was found impossible for the 
author to describe what he himself was doing as a 
rectal specialist, or to direct sufferers on the road 
to relief, unless he stated how certain appliances 
should be employed. In the following pages, con- 
sequently, the reader will learn just what to do, for 
the work is above all things simple and direct, and 
in the writer's judgment has the sterling quality of 
common sense. 

Some of the chapters have already appeared, in 
abridged form, in the magazine Health, as contrib- 
uted essays ; but the text has been elaborated in 
the following pages and much new matter added, 
in order that the work should present the most 
mature information concerning the subjects dis- 
cussed. 

A. B. J. 

New York, May 20, 1903. 



£<*'. ; l -j 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. PAGE 

Efforts to Overcome Constipation without Seek- 
ing its Cause i 

CHAPTER II. 

Pathology of the Anus and Rectum ; or, The Gen- 
esis of Constipation . . . . . . 8 

CHAPTER III. 
The Formation of Channels, Piles, and Fistulas . 19 

CHAPTER IV. 

Undue Retention of Gas and Feces in the Sigmoid 

Flexure . . 28 

CHAPTER V. 
Rebellion of our Outraged Internal Economy . 35 

CHAPTER VI. 
Gaseous Obesity and our Roly-polies ... 46 

CHAPTER VII. 

Irrigation of the Assimilative and Eliminative 

Organs 57 

* 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Methods of Stomach Cleansing 65 



Contents 



72 



84 



90 



IOI 



108 



120 



CHAPTER IX. 

When Enemas should be Taken 

CHAPTER X. 
How Enemas should be Taken .... 

CHAPTER XL 
The Internal Fountain Bath .... 

CHAPTER XII. 
Benefits of the Inner Bath .... 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Objections to the Use of the Enema Answered 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Lame Back 

CHAPTER XV. 
Uric Acid 125 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Rational Sanitation and Hygiene .... 135 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Personal Cleanliness 144 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Hot Water in the Treatment of Proctitis and 

Colitis 151 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Hot W t ater in the Treatment of External 

Symptoms 160 

CHAPTER XX. 
Antiseptic Employment of Powders and Oils . 163 



INTESTINAL IRRIGATION. 



CHAPTER I. 

Efforts to Overcome Constipation without 
Seeking its Cause. 

IN the year 1496 an Italian, Gatenaria, invented 
an appliance for taking an enema ; since that 
time depuratory instruments have had more or less 
vogue in all civilized countries. Of late years in- 
ventive powers have been taxed to construct more 
convenient and effective appliances, and now per- 
fection has been almost reached, and the poor civili- 
zee, whose habits are really very bad from the 
savage point of view, may enjoy the delicious privi- 
lege of an internal bath whenever he feels the need 
of it. By any other name this bath is just as puri- 
fying : call it irrigation, injection, lavement, clyster, 
enema — its many names and what they mean 
testify to the fact that it is for the disease of civili- 
zation. 

The medical profession is really behind the lay- 
man in genuine therapeutic measures. It still cares 
more for the pill-and-powder-prescription-earning 
fee than for the real health of the patient. When 



Intestinal Irrigation 

it shall wean itself from its sordid commercialism, 
it will make the use of the enema a fundamental 
factor in most forms of therapeutic treatment, and 
then the enema will become universal. 

From the origin of the enema to the present day, 
the layman has not been unmindful of this valuable 
resource for removing morbid matter from his 
physiological sewer. The great relief he thus ob- 
tained, and the invariably good results that followed 
its use, established as a necessary toilet article some 
form of depuratory apparatus in many homes for 
all time to come. 

But of the nature of the disease that had occa- 
sioned its use, both layman and physician were, and 
for the most part are, ignorant. Local obstruction 
and discomfort were sufficient to suggest this mode 
of relief ; yet no truly scientific inquiry seems to 
have been instituted to discover the cause of the 
obstruction. The author, during an experience of 
over twenty-three years as a specialist in diseases 
of the bowels, rectum, and anus, has found the true 
cause, namely, Proctitis ; that is, the chronic in- 
flammation (dating often from infancy and child- 
hood) of the anus, rectum, and frequently of a 
portion of the sigmoid flexure and colon. Proctitis 
is practically the universal cause of chronic consti- 
pation. Victims of constipation have more or less 
haphazardly resorted to the enema as a ready means 
of relief — a recourse that was often, nay generally, 
against the advice of their medical counselor : a 
professional opposition that indicates either ig- 



Efforts to Overcome Constipation 

norance, mistaken judgment, or fear of losing a 
profitable patient. But the layman has not been 
uniformly wise. He is an experimenter on his own 
hook — encouraged in his experiments by the most 
promising and seductive of advertisements in the 
whole gamut of advertising. He experimented on 
his organism, tinkering it now with cathartics or 
purgatives of multiform nature, and again with 
digestive and other agents. This tinkering habit 
seems to have become all but universal with civil- 
ized man. Constipation — which is caused by 
proctitis — will, of course, bring indigestion and 
biliousness and diarrhea and nervousness and 
headache and a host of other maladies in its train ; 
all of these induce the civilizee to increase his tin- 
kering with his divine abode until it eventually falls 
in ruins. The tinkerer loses sight of the fact that 
his abode is not a body like the bodies of wood, 
stone, and iron that he handles and putters with 
daily ; he forgets or ignores the fact that it is a 
vital organic machine, which, when tinkered too 
much, will stop, " never to go again." It is poor 
consolation when you have reached your last gasp, 
after a chronic invalidism, to feel that you have 
done the best you knew how. You have not sought 
the cause, nor, having learned it somehow, sought 
to remove or avoid it. For the last four hundred 
years this tinkering, this futile medication, has been 
kept up at a furious pace without even a hope of 
permanent cure. Poor, outraged human nature 
dimly knew that it was simply doctoring a symp 

3 



Intestinal Irrigation 

torn, a consequence of something or other — for that 
is all that constipation and its host of symptoms 
really are. 

The writer is of the opinion that constipation is 
the fundamental disease that afflicts mankind ; that, 
at all events, there are more cases of proctitis than 
of any other disease ; that very few " civilized " per- 
sons are free from it ; that so prevalent a disease 
must have a common origin, which he traces right 
back to babyhood, to the wearing of soiled diapers, 
a practice that cannot but result in inflammation of 
the buttocks and mucous membrane of the anus 
and rectum ; and that this inflammation continues 
and finally becomes deepened and established, pro- 
ducing in after years chronic constipation and its 
train of evils. Of course, there are other causes 
that bring on proctitis among children and adults ; 
but careful examination shows that the severity of 
the malady with its train indicates long duration in 
the tissues comprising the wall of the anal and rectal 
canals and the adjoining tissues of the bowels. 

Proctitis, with its extension, colitis, is by no means 
a slight disease, as it is supposed to be by a few mem- 
bers of the medical fraternity who are beginning to 
apprehend its existence ; on the contrary, it is so 
serious that its gravity cannot be impressed too 
forcibly upon both laymen and physicians. During 
the many years of special attention the writer has 
given to diseases of the anus, rectum, colon, etc., 
he has not ceased to wonder how it was possible 
that the victim of deep-seated proctitis could have 



Efforts to Overcome Constipation 

so dreadful a disease and not be greatly alarmed 
at its ravages and dangers. The anatomy, physi- 
ology, and hygiene of the parts involved in this 
inflammation continue in some manner to permit 
the passage of excrement along the diseased canal ; 
and the victim continues to swallow drugs and 
tinker with these — his irreplaceable "inards." 1 

It is not my purpose at present to go into a de- 
tailed description of the organs involved in this 
inflammatory process, but to make plain why the 
enema is superior to all other means of securing 
cleanliness. When we know why we do a thing, 
the task is not so difficult and annoying as when we 
go it blind or simply .obey the behest of a physi- 
cian. Ignorance has no business bothering with 
anything ; experience, however, is usually a painful 
if not a fatal instructor. The human race at large is 
ignorant concerning the normal and abnormal pro- 
cesses of its internal organs. " Out of sight, out of 
mind " seems to be the maxim of almost every one 
as to our vital organs and the conditions for their 
hygienic functioning. The purpose of the writer 
will be achieved if he succeed in sounding a note 
of warning that will be heard and heeded by those 
whose influence will extend the echoes till the world 
listens and learns the claims of the inner physio- 
logical economy. 

Those that possess even a modicum of sense will 

* 

1 For numerous illustrations of the various morbid conditions of the 
anus and rectum, see the author's 64-page booklet, entitled How to Become 
Strong. 



Intestinal Irrigation 

easily understand how a muscular tube like the 
anus, rectum, sigmoid flexure, etc., when invaded 
and traversed for eight to ten or more inches by 
disease, will offer obstruction to the descent and 
escape of gases and feces. All are familiar with 
the contraction that occurs when a finger, hand, or 
limb is inflamed ; how little we can then use the 
diseased part until all of the inflammation has left 
the muscular tissue. Why do we give so much 
attention to an inflamed external part and none at 
all to the all-important internal organ for the ex- 
pulsion of the sewage of the body ? The parts are 
not " weak " when contracted with inflammation : 
weakness is not what is the matter with them. The 
trouble is that the muscular fiber is then too active, 
made so by the excessive irritation of the local dis- 
order. Irritation of muscular tissue always causes 
contraction of its fiber. Such contraction well 
accounts for constipation. 

We are a nation of constipated people, so consti- 
pated indeed that we have developed dyspepsia and 
neurasthenia. As I have already stated, the chief 
ill of " civilized " people is proctitis ; the chief symp- 
tom of proctitis is constipation ; the chief symptom 
of constipation is dyspepsia ; and the chief symp- 
tom of dyspepsia is neurasthenia, and so on and 
on — all of them the outcome of imperfect elimina- 
tion of morbid matter from the intestinal canal. 

The common sense learned in the treatment of 
external parts should be applied to such diseased 
portions of the body as the anus, rectum, etc. 

6 



Efforts to Overcome Constipation 

Common sense declares that an enema ought to be 
used on all occasions of undue retention of the con- 
tents of the bowels. It is the only sensible thing 
under the circumstances. Yet, for the last four 
hundred years, only independent men and women 
have had the courage to proclaim its merits, since 
the subject was under the ban of both laymen and 
physicians. Now that we have learned the abso- 
lute necessity of such a device, it is to be hoped 
that the taboo will be removed, and that the numer- 
ous victims of proctitis will be instructed in the 
wisdom of availing themselves of the valuable aid 
of the enema in either curing proctitis or prevent- 
ing it from growing worse, while they are at the 
same time securing relief through its use by the re- 
moval of feces and gases several times daily, thus 
preventing the absorption of poison, which the 
retention of waste invariably facilitates. 



CHAPTER II. 

Pathology of the Anus and Rectum ; or, The 
Genesis of Constipation. 

WHEN an affliction is seemingly universal it is 
reasonable to conclude that it springs from 
universal conditions. Proctitis, the most wide- 
spread disease of civilized man, originates very 
early in life, and develops in after years numerous 
painful symptoms — such as piles or hemorrhoids, 
constipation, etc. 

Now, what is the most common exciter of procti- 
tis, which, as has been said, is an inflammation of 
the mucous membrane of the anus and rectum ? 
In my earlier work, Intestinal Ills, I have shown 
that inattention to the soiled diaper is generally the 
original cause of this most grievous of ills, with its 
train of malign consequences continuing through- 
out the victim's life on earth. Unnoticed by nurse 
or mother, the inflammation of the anus and rectum 
makes headway with each subsequent soiling; and 
thereafter, when the use of the diaper is dispensed 
with, inattention to the normal action of the bowels, 
improper food, the resort to purgatives, stimulants, 
and opiates, play no small part in aggravating the 
existing malady. 

8 




Fig. i. 

A portion of the wall of the rectum has been removed exposing various 
layers : I, serous layer ; 2, muscular layers ; 3, 3, submucous layers ; 4, 4, 
mucous membrane ; 5, internal sphincter muscle ; 6, external sphincter 
muscle ; 7, circular muscular bands forming the rectum ; 8, rectum ; 9, 
sigmoid flexure. (See Fig. 7, showing, the longitudinal muscular bands.) 



Intestinal Irrigation 



The first care-taker of the infant is therefore re- 
sponsible for the initial process, which progresses 

to a chronic condition by subse- 
quent inattention. She is indeed 
solicitous over the inflamed but- 
tocks of her charge, but overlooks 
the far more dangerous inflam- 
mation of the mucous membrane 
of the anus and rectum, or she 
does not realize its insidious 
and subtly progressive charac- 
ter. Candidates for motherhood 
should be instructed on this mo- 
mentous subject. 

There are other exciting causes 
of proctitis, but, since they are 
exceptional when compared with 
the neglected diaper, we need 
not concern ourselves with them 
at present. 

The muscular coat of the rec- 
tum consists of two layers : an 
inner circular and an outer longi- 
tudinal band. The inner circular 
layer of muscular tissue of the 
rectum forms the internal sphinc- 
ter muscle ; and the outer longi- 
tudinal bands merge with those 
of the external sphincter. The 
anal orifice is closed or guarded by two strong 
sphincter muscles, as shown in Figs, i, 2, and 3. 




Fig. 2. 

a, Ulcer on sphincter 
ani. &, Filaments of 
two nerves are exposed 
on the ulcer, the one a 
nerve of sensation, the 
other of motion, both 
attached to the spinal 
marrow, thus constitut- 
ing an excito-motory ap- 
paratus, c, Levator ani. 
d, Transversus perinei. 
(Hilton.) 



10 



Pathology of the Anus and Rectum 

These muscles are abundantly supplied with nerves, 
of which branches are distributed to the bladder 
and other adjacent organs, which accounts for the 




Fig. 3. . 

a, Sacrum, b, Coccyx, c, Tuberosity of ischium. a\ Posterior or 
larger sacro-sciatic ligament, e, Anterior or small sacro-sciatic ligament, 
with the pudic nerve passing over its posterior aspect, and proceeding to the 
rectum and penis. /, Sphincter ani receiving its nervous supply from the 
pudic nerve. Portions of the muscles have been cut away, in order to 
show nerve filaments going to the mucous membrane, through the muscular 
fibers, g, Levator ani. k, Fat and areolar tissue occupying the ischio- 
rectal fossa and covering the levator ani. i, Transverse muscles of per- 
ineum, k, Erector penis. /, Accelerator urinae. 1, Pudic nerve. 2, 
Posterior sacral nerves proceeding to posterior part of the coccyx and to 
the sphincter ani. 3, Anterior sacral nerve (4th) supplying the sphincter 
ani. (Hilton.) 

sympathy of these organs and their grave dis- 
turbance when disease inheres in the anus and 
rectum. 

The orifice used for the elimination of undigested 

food and waste matter plays quite as important 

a part in the organic economy as the orifice that is 

employed for receiving food. Normal elimination, 

n 



Intestinal Irrigation 

physiological and psychological, is the correlative 
process to prehension (seizure or appropriation), 
and the concord of the two forms the key-note of 
the organism. 

The muscles and tissues constituting the anal 
vent should be as flexible and responsive to the 
will or desire of the rectum for relief of its contents 
as the lips are in permitting the saliva to escape. 
In like manner the upper portion of the rectum 
(Figs. 6 and 8) should respond with instant readi- 
ness to the effort of the sigmoid flexure to expel its 
contents. But an abnormal condition like inflam- 
mation rooted in the anus and lower part of the 
rectum (Fig. i, 4-4) will inhibit the passage of 
the pressing burden above them, which inhibition 
will cause the inflammation to extend to the sig- 
moid flexure, and thence on to the colon proper; 
and sooner or later the inflammation will penetrate 
the sub-mucous coat (Fig. t, 3-3), which is com- 
posed of fatty or areolar connective tissue in which 
trunks of nerves and blood-vessels are imbedded. 

The first symptom of inflammation is undue red- 
ness, followed by slight pufriness of the anal and 
rectal mucous membrane (Fig. 1, 4-4), with more 
or less sensitiveness of the tissues involved ; and as 
its irritability increases there is more or less con- 
traction of the muscular tissue forming the anus 
and rectum, which lessens the diameter of their 
bore. And the consequence of this contraction is 
of physiological concern to the victim, for in pro- 
portion to the contraction the normal demand of 



12 



Pathology of the Anus and Rectum 

the victim for relief of the impending feces and gas 
is modified and lessened. 

In health, the anal canal is from two to three 
inches in length, and it will distend about two 
inches — an elasticity quite equal to that of any 
other orifice of the body. As the anal tissues are 
usually the first to be invaded by disease, it is but 
natural that the obstipation or constipation should 
occur right above it — namely, in the rectum. The 
average length of the rectum is about six inches, 
and when the disease invades its whole length the 
constipation occurs in the sigmoid flexure and may 
thence extend to the colon. 

The filling of the intestine with feces and gases 
usually occurs just above the diseased portion of 
the gut ; but at the same time the walls of the 
affected part of the canal are more or less coated 
with feces, and its abnormal pouches here and there 
contain more or less liquefied or dried feces. A 
diseased canal cannot expel all of its contents, since 
its normal expulsive power is gone. Some of the 
feces somehow or other gets down and out, but 
a larger portion inevitably remains. It is for this 
reason that a diseased intestine always reminds one 
of the Augean stable. It is simply marvelous that 
the human body continues as a living organism 
with so much filth and bacterial poison stored in 
its alimentary canal, and the vaults that result 
from abnormal pressure during periods of fecal 
impaction (Fig. 4). 

When 'the inflammatory process extends up the 

13 



Intestinal Irrigation 

rectum and at the same time into the spongy, fatty, 
or areolar tissue under the mucous membrane (Fig. 
i, 3-3), thence to the muscular and serous layers 
(Fig. 1, 2-1), or through the four layers of tissue 
comprising its wall, we have a more marked and 
serious occlusion (closing) of the organ than when 
only the mucous membrane was affected. When 
muscular tissue is inflamed, its tendency is to con- 
tract and become solidified by an adhesive inflam- 
matory product secreted between the circular and 
longitudinal muscular fibres (Fig. 1, 7, and Fig. 7). 
Often the circular or sphincter muscles forming the 
anal canal have to be distended to bring about a 
more normal vent. The same pathological condi- 
tions that occasion contraction of the anal bore or 
caliber occur, more or less, as far up the gut as the 
disease has advanced. 

In a normal state of the lower bowel the sigmoid 
flexure passes its contents into the rectum, and the 
desire to defecate is reported — that is, the impulse 
to stool becomes more or less urgent until it is per- 
formed. But when all four coats of the anus and 
rectum are diseased, with perhaps a portion of the 
sigmoid flexure also, it is very difficult for the healthy 
portion of the sigmoid flexure and the colon to dis- 
charge their contents into the rectum ; consequently 
no call, impulse, or desire reaches the mind. Consti- 
pation will then ensue, for the stool, not being called 
for, is not performed. Every demand of a healthy 
portion of the intestine is answered by increased 
contraction of the muscles of the diseased portion 

14 



Pathology of the Anus and Rectum 

of the rectum. While the war between the healthy 
and the diseased sections of the bowels goes on, 
the victim naturally concludes that there is no occa- 
sion or demand for defecation, and he attends to 
other affairs, ignorant of the fact that he is thus 
making a fatal mistake. 

The first condition that ensues is the tendency of 
the rectum to fill unduly with feces and gases, im- 
pelling the victim to " strain " in order to force the 
feces through the constricted anal canal. After a 
while the sigmoid flexure and colon will fill unduly, 
and then the victim will form the habit of waiting for 
the feces to descend, and of straining to expel what 
little manages to escape through the diseased gut. 

A portion of the imprisoned feces in the healthy 
section of the intestine sometimes, at an unguarded 
moment, manages to distribute itself along the 
length of the diseased and constricted canal, where 
it is retained indefinitely, increasing the local irrita- 
tion. And when the fecal mass accumulates suffi- 
ciently in both the healthy and the diseased portions 
of the intestines to set up a vigorous excitement, 
the victim may, by the aid of his waiting and strain- 
ing habit (which habit, by the way, only torments 
and bruises the chronically diseased organs), bring 
on some sort of evacuation. In the early history 
of the disease this habit may serve for a time ; but, 
as the disease progresses, the "laxative" habit is 
formed, which, in turn, settles into a chronic " drug" 
habit for all sorts and conditions of gastro-intestinal 
and other ills, which inevitably ensue. As the rav- 



Intestinal Irrigation 

• 

ages of chronic inflammation of the anus and rectum 
increase, the symptoms rapidly multiply, till finally 
the victim, in desperation, feels that he must find 
additional sources of relief — and, among other habits, 
he forms the " diet " habit. 

The order of abnormal habits brought into exist- 
ence by ulcerative inflammation of the anus, rectum, 
and colon is about as follows : (i) the habit of un- 
duly retaining the feces in the rectum ; (2) the 
habit of straining at stool ; (3) the habit of unduly 
retaining the feces in the sigmoid flexure ; (4) the 
habit of resorting to the use of purgatives, pepsin, 
and other drugs ; (5) the chronic " physic " habit ; 
(6) the foolish "diet" habit; (7) the gastroin- 
testinal neurasthenic habit ; (8) the health-resort 
habit ; (9) the habit of trying desperately to appear 
agreeable while feeling really ill ; (10) the habit of 
blaming the liver for all direful feelings, physical 
and mental. 

It is but natural that the lower portion of the 
rectal and anal structures should be affected more 
severely than any other portion of the intes- 
tines by the ulcerative, inflammatory process. The 
sphincter muscles are very strong, as a rule, and 
fill their office only too well when the anal and 
rectal canals are in a diseased state, for they effec- 
tually prevent the contents from escaping. Often 
their contraction or stricture is so great that their 
expansion is limited to from one-fourth to one-half 
an inch. This virtually permanent closure of the 
anal vent naturally results in an accumulation of 

16 



Pathology of the Anus and Rectum 

feces just above it, or in the lower portion of the 
rectum, which accounts for the dilatation, stretch- 
ing, or ballooning of the anal and rectal tissues im- 
mediately above 
these muscles, as 
shown in Fig. 4. 

In not a few 
cases where dila- 
tation of the rec- 
tum exists, the 
upper half or 
more of the anal 
canal is also di- 
lated, leaving an 
anal canal only 
an eighth of an 
inch in length in 
some cases ; in 
other cases, per- 
haps half an inch 
to an inch. 

Similar dilata- 
tion of the sig- 
moid flexure occurs as the result of the severe con- 
traction of the upper half of the rectum, and especi- 
ally at the bend shown by Fig. 6 and Fig. 12. 
This bend forms quite a sphincter for the normal 
receptacle — the sigmoid flexure. Here also pro- 
lapse, distention, and dislocation of the sigmoid 
flexure may occur, somewhat similar to the anal 
prolapse from disease and abuse. 




Fig. 4. 

1, The dotted lines indicate the normal direc- 
tion of the anus and rectum ; 2, 4, the cavities 
or pouch formed by dilatation or ballooning 
from the storage of impacted feces ; 3, a probe 
bent at right angles, and introduced through 
a speculum, to ascertain the depth of the 
pouch, which is frequently found to-be two 
and a half inches. 



17- 



Intestinal Irrigation 

Piles and itching of the anus are symptoms of 
proctitis, or inflammation of the anus and rectum. 
Why should we find such dissimilar symptoms pro- 
ceeding from the same cause ? The reason is plain 
when we consider the results following chronic in- 
flammation of the mucous membrane of the anus 
and rectum and the deeper tissues. Those who 
suffer from catarrh of this membrane are familiar 
with the discharge of mucus that appears from 
time to time during the progress of the inflamma- 
tion. But, as the inflammation penetrates the mu- 
cous membrane and the underlying tissues of the 
anus and rectum, the escape of the inflammatory 
product is prevented ; and this imprisoned fluid 
must either be absorbed by the system or retained 
in reservoirs or in channels wherever the least re- 
sistance is offered to its invasion. 

The mucous membrane of the anus and rectum 
is loosely attached to the subjacent parts by areo- 
lar tissue (Fig. i, 3-3), which is sufficiently lax to 
allow an expansion of two inches ; and in a puck- 
ered or contracted state the membrane is thrown 
into folds, or into shallow or deep wrinkles. The 
loose areolar attachment and folds of various depths 
afford space for lodgment of the inflammatory dis- 
charge, which channels its way down along the 
folds through the areolar tissue under the mucous 
membrane to that of the integument, and so on for 
a distance of a foot or more from the anus in some 
cases. 



18 



CHAPTER III. 

The Formation of Channels, Piles, and 

Fistulas. 

SHOULD channels, of varying length and num- 
bers, form early in the development of procti- 
tis, the sufferer is usually found to be free from 
piles, or hemorrhoids, for the reason that the chan- 
nels have afforded an outlet to the inflammatory 
product. The formation of lengthy channels also 
prevents to a great extent the development of 
skinny tabs round about the integument of the 
anus. This is some compensation to the sufferer 
for the labor of scratching and for enduring the 
painful itching so often present. Some suffer only 
from pain along the channels themselves, while 
others experience a slight disturbance of the nerv- 
ous system ; yet all must be more or less poisoned 
from the absorption of so large an amount of the 
contents of the channels and cavities. 

In the cavities and along the channels the areo- 
lar tissue is of a mahogany color, and no channel 
is traced to its end so long as the tissues present a 
bruised, inflamed appearance. In some cases the 
inflammatory product has destroyed the areolar 
tissue attached to the integument at and near the 
anus, frequently to the extent of leaving a hollow 

19 



Intestinal Irrigation 

space or cavity of surprising dimensions. I have 
met only a few cases in which the channels were 
opened by pus forming in them. Those that are 
very shallow, the walls being friable, may break 
and form a fissure of the anus ; or a little anal fis- 
tula may arise from a slight suppuration at its end 
in the integument near the anus. 

In cases where the channels are few and short, 
whether itching be present or not, the pile tumors 
are likewise few and of moderate size, demonstrat- 
ing the intimate relation of the aggravation of 
either of the symptoms or the moderation of both 
in the same case. Very frequently pile tumors 
have channels extending from them to the junction 
of the mucous membrane and integument of the 
anus, or even under the integument about the 
anus, forming rugae, or tabs. 

The number and size of pile tumors would seem 
to depend on how completely the inflammatory 
product is imprisoned in the tissues in what is 
termed the " pile-bearing " region. Often the treat- 
ment of piles, or hemorrhoids, aids very much in the 
cure of itching at the anus — by destroying a part 
of the channels involved in the pile structures in 
the mucous membrane of the lower end of the rec- 
tum and extending along under the anal membrane 
and the integument of the anus. 

The meshes and layers of the mucous membrane, 
as well as the space occupied by the areolar tissue, 
are stretched or pouched by the inflammatory 
product. 

20 



Channels, Piles, and Fistulas 

My observation forces me to conclude that the 
inflammatory product imprisoned in the areolar 
meshes, between the mucous membrane and the 
muscular layers, is the principal factor in forming 
piles and the channels so often found in the same 
region. Of course, obstructed circulation, con- 
gested veins, capillaries, and arterioles, and a more 
or less apparent varicose condition, increase the 
size of the pile tumors and the general thickness 
of the mucous membrane over the region affected 
by the disease. 

The process occasioning the separation of the 
mucous membrane from its areolar attachment or 
bed often extends the whole length of the rectum, 
giving the mucous membrane the loose and raised 
appearance that a piece of thin silk would have if 
laid on over that surface. The fatty or areolar 
tissue under the skin about the anus suffers like- 
wise by being destroyed, leaving a hollow cavity 
or a large channel of great length under the skin. 
The separation of the mucous membrane and in- 
tegument about the anus from their areolar attach- 
ment permits of prolapse of the mucous membrane 
and integument that form the anal canal and skin 
around the orifice. 

It would seem that the channels, pile sacs, and 
cavities serve as temporary reservoirs for the inflam- 
matory product, a portion of which the system 
absorbs and another portion of which escapes 
through the mucous membrane and integument. 
In escaping in this way it occasions itching and 

21 



Intestinal Irrigation 

pain. The itching or soreness does not in all cases 
extend throughout the whole length of the channel. 
A few inches of the channel farthest from its origin 
may be the seat of the greatest disturbance, and the 
sufferer and physician alike are usually unaware 
that the source of the trouble is in the tissues of 
the anus and rectum. 

The marked improvement in the health of those 
that have been cured of both the morbid condition 
produced by the inflammatory product and the 
cause of that condition is evidence that the general 
vitality of the system had been greatly lowered, 
even though the most annoying of the symptoms, 
such as piles, itching, or acute pain, had not been 
present. The lack of annoyance along the channel 
for a certain period may be due to a limited pro- 
duction, or to a rapid absorption of the inflamma- 
tory product by the system. 

Proctitis and the attendant symptoms just de- 
scribed have been overlooked by the medical 
profession. Physicians have confined their atten- 
tion to two symptoms — piles and fistula. After 
undergoing a surgical operation for these, the pa- 
tient is considered cured. What ignorance, or 
rather short-sightedness, to remove only the annoy- 
ing symptom, and then to pronounce the patient 
healed ! Let me ask my professional brethren why 
they do not concern themselves with the underlying 
cause of the symptom or symptoms, and whether 
they suppose this cause is going out of business. 
Surely it is a grave mistake to concern one's self 



22 



Channels, Piles, and Fistulas 

with the leading symptom merely — to remove that, 
and to leave its cause intact. When the disease- 
producing cause remains to generate its poisonous 
effects in the system, opportunities exist for further 
symptoms to develop. 

The system may be already depleted of vitality, 
and the harsh treatment for the purpose of remov- 
ing a mere symptom may only make the sufferer's 
condition more deplorable — if it does not indeed 
cause death. 

There are other symptoms of proctitis than piles 
and fistula, which remain after the conventional 
surgical operation for their removal. Obstipation 
and constipation are usually symptoms of proctitis, 
and will persist until the inflammation in the upper 
half of the rectum and sometimes in a portion of 
the sigmoid flexure is cured. 

The victim of proctitis has two marked sources 
of poisoning of the system : one proceeding from 
the absorption of the inflammatory product, and the 
other from undue retention of the waste matter of 
the body that should pass out by the lower bowel. 

Inflammation of a mucous membrane causes 
structural changes in the tissues involved in the 
morbid process, and not infrequently it becomes the 
seat of a malignant disease. 

The reader may be familiar with the white, loose, 
alveolar (honeycomb-like) network of elastic tissue 
(called fat) just under the skin and mucous mem- 
brane. Consult in this connection the cut on page 24. 

The abdominal and pelvic organs are cushioned 

23 



Intestinal Irrigation 

or held in place somewhat by the network of fatty 
tissue that surrounds them, and the rectum is no 




Fig. 5. 
Male pelvic organs viewed from the right side (the right ilium and a por- 
tion of the ischium and the pubic bone, together with their soft parts, have 
been removed). 1, auricular surface of the sacrum ; 2, tuberosity of the 
sacrum; 3, ischium; 4, pubic bone; 5, psoas muscle; 6, erector spinal 
muscle ; 7, glutei muscles ; 8, obdurator muscles ; 9, external sphincter of 
anus; 10, rectum; 11, sigmoid flexure; 12, bladder; 13, ureter; 14, vas 
deferens ; 15, seminal vesicles ; 16, prostate ; 20, lateral vesicle ligaments ; 
21, hypo-gastric artery ; 22, hypo-gastric vein ; 23, external iliac artery ; 
24, abdominal aorta. (Boas.) 

exception to the rule. The outer or serous wall is 
surrounded by an abundance of loose areolar tissue, 

24 



Channels, Piles, and Fistulas 

which is divided into cellular spaces. When this 
tissue also is invaded by inflammation, the condi- 
tion is spoken of as periproctitis ; and we have a 
result somewhat similar to that which occurs in the 
areolar tissue just under the mucous membrane and 
integument, as previously described. 

As the inflammatory product is discharged into 
this spongy or fatty connective tissue it is slowly 
forced in some direction, which is naturally down- 
ward, if not too much obstructed by firm tissue ; 
at all events, it follows the line of least resistance 
and forms usually quite a large channel and several 
cavities along its course. The channel may begin 
at an elevation of four or more inches on the out- 
side of the rectum (Fig. 5). Should it form in 
front of the rectum, the seminal vesicles (15) and 
the prostate gland (16) would suffer greatly by its 
presence. 

As the inflammatory process burrows its way 
downward, it finally reaches the soft fatty connec- 
tive tissue under the skin. It then continues along 
this in one or more directions for a distance of two 
or more inches. Several of these long, large pus- 
less channels may exist for many years, or for a 
lifetime, without sufficient evidence of their exist- 
ence along their route accurately to locate them. 
Itching, pain, and color of the skin often indicate 
the presence of such a channel under the integu- 
ment. The author has frequently found large 
channels extending up along the outer rectal wall 
for four inches, and extending out into the deep 

25 



Intestinal Irrigation 

tissues of the buttocks in various directions, with- 
out making their presence and ravages known to 
the victim. 

Such numerous pathological conditions have led. 
the author to conclude that an abscess just under 
the skin and the discharge of pus are merely inci- 
dents in the history of such maladies. Think of it : 
your body may be bored with channels or holes of 
varying diameters and lengths, while you yourself 
may be ignorant of what is occurring ! The mu- 
cous membrane may be lifted from the connective 
tissue for the whole length of the rectum, and the 
skin about the anus may also be in this condition. 
You know that your health is not good, but you 
are ignorant of the cause. The formation of pus 
at some period of the channel's inroads, or of an 
abscess, would seem a kindly act of Nature, for the 
presence of so serious a disturber to health would 
thus become known. 

I have not overdrawn this picture of periproctitis 
and of submucous tissue channels. The victims 
could scarcely be worse off than they are. I want 
boys and girls, young men and young women, to 
learn the facts concerning the local dangers of 
proctitis ; for, when they once realize the serious- 
ness of this disease because of its many grave 
symptoms, they will give it proper attention before 
these effects manifest themselves. You cannot 
neglect so important a portion of your body as the 
anus and rectum and not seriously endanger the 
organs that lie close to them. No wonder so many 

26 



Channels, Piles, and Fistulas 

men are troubled with inflammation and induration 
of the prostate gland. The percentage of such 
cases would be greatly reduced were proctitis and 
periproctitis denied the existence they now enjoy 
for years, and often for a lifetime. 

In view of all that has been advanced concerning 
these local pathological conditions, is it strange 
that almost everybody is constipated, and that we 
need some simple sovereign aid to further the 
scientific treatment of the physician — an aid such 
as the enema has proved to be ? 



27 



CHAPTER IV. 

Undue Retention of Gas and Feces in the 
Sigmoid Flexure. 

IN the previous chapters attention was called espe- 
cially to the lower portion of the rectum and 
the anus. In this chapter we will consider the sig- 
moid flexure, which, when diseased, is often dilated, 
dislocated, and depressed, a pathological condition 
somewhat similar to that found in the lower portion 
of the rectum and the anus. 

The illustration on page 29 shows the normal 
relations of the rectum and the sigmoid flexure ; 
also the whole colon. 7 marks the beginning of 
the sigmoid flexure, and 6 its upper end. The 
reader will note the four sharp curves or flexures 
of this organ, — from 6 to 7, — which forms in health 
a normal and most convenient receptacle for feces, 
and which, like the bladder, can be emptied at 
regular intervals. 

Unless the system were able in some way to 
eliminate the waste and poisonous matter it had 
generated within six hours, it would fatally poison 
itself. 

Those internal ventilators, the lungs, and those 
external ducts, the pores, are constantly at work 

28 



Retention of Gas and Feces 



purifying the body ; and they are actively assisted 
by the kidneys and the bladder. Observation ex- 
tending over many years of practice induces me to 
believe that among those 
who suffer from chronic 
constipation two-thirds 
to three-fourths of the 
fecal mass is taken into 
the system and elimin- 
ated by the kidneys, 
mucous membrane, and 
skin. Diseases of the 
above organs are num- 
erous and seemingly in- 
curable from the fact 
that their common cause 
has not been discovered 
and treated properly. 

Were it not for these seen on each side. 8, 8. The rec- 

organs steadily at work, tum - 7 - Be § in " in g of the tectum. 

6. The sigmoid flexure. 5. The 
the labor Of the bowels descending colon. 4. The trans- 
WOuld be Of little avail. verse colon - 3- The caecum, or caput 
B, .-i 1 . coli. 2. Appendicula vermiformis. 
Ut While the import- r . T he end of the ileum. 

ance of the former can- 
not be ignored, it must be conceded that the most 
important of all the eliminating organs are the 
bowels, for their function is to discharge not only 
the waste solids but also a great amount of waste 
liquids and gases as well. 

Undue fermentation of the ingesta (the aliment 
taken into the system) generates poisons of more 
29 




Fig. 6. 
The anus. Levator ani muscle 



Intestinal Irrigation 



or less virulence ; it must therefore be obvious 
that a clean intestinal canal is necessary after every 
meal to further the normal digestive process. 

Very often the outlet of the sigmoid flexure is ob- 
structed. Fig- 
ures 6 and 7 are 
shown to make 
the cause of this 
obstruction 
more clear. In 
Figure 7 we see 
the longitudinal 
and transverse 
fibers that form 
the wall of the 
rectum. In all 
cases of chronic 
obstipation, the 
muscular struct- 
ure of the anus, 
rectum, and fre- 
quently of a 





Fig. 7. 

A view of the longitudinal muscular fibers of 
a section of the rectum : 2, upper portion of the 
rectum ; 3, 4, 5, the three bands of longitudinal 
fibers of the colon continued upon the rectum ; 
6, the longitudinal muscular fibers of the rectum 
formed by the expansion of those of the colon. 
A view of the muscular coat of the colon : 1, 
1, one of the bands of longitudinal muscular portion 1 the 
fibers ; 2, 2, the circular fibers of the muscular sigmoid flexure 
coat. . . . . .. 

is invaded with 
chronic inflammation of a very severe and serious 
character. 

What is the result of this inflammation ? Self- 
evidently contraction of the muscular structure, as 
you would quickly enough discover were one of 
your hands or arms inflamed. 

30 



Retention of Gas and Feces 

Though constant attention should be given to 
the much more important organ, the rectum, prac- 
tically none is given it. " Out of sight, out of 
mind." 

Again, no doctor would diagnose an inflamed 
limb as paralysis, atony, etc., and dose the victim 
with nux vomica, tonics, physic, etc., in the hope 
of thereby healing it. Yet, with singular fatuity, 
this absurd diagnosis and treatment is given when 
the lower bowel is invaded with chronic inflamma- 
tion. 

Let the common-sense reader inform himself 
concerning his organism. Let him remember that 
he has within muscular organs that demand exactly 
the same attention when diseased as those without. 
This fact is especially important for the sufferer 
from constipation or semi-constipation to know. 

Were the anus, rectum, and sigmoid flexure one 
continuous straight tube, the muscular action in the 
process of defecation would not be as complex as 
it is, since then the feces would drop right down 
and out. But these parts have so many curves and 
angles that when disease invades their interior they 
accentuate their folds and valves by contracting and 
do not readily respond to the nerve demand for 
complex, muscular, snakelike movements, when 
evacuation is desired. I n this unreadiness to respond 
they cast into confusion all the functions of the 
whole complicated organism, all parts of which are 
necessarily interdependent. A wise provision of 
Mother Nature are these curves, angles, and valves, 
31 



Intestinal Irrigation 



for they prevent the sudden dropping of the con- 
tents of the colon down to the anal orifice — a pos- 
sibility that would greatly embarrass us during 
social and business hours. 

The accompanying figure shows the rectum dis- 
sected at its upper end from the sig- 
moid flexure. This portion of the 
rectum is smaller than the lower 
two-thirds of the organ. Now, it 
is this lessened diameter of the £ut 
that is an aid to the sigmoid flex- 
ure in its capacity as a receptacle, 
but a most decided hindrance when 
it is diseased — since it will posi- 
tively inhibit the passage of feces 
and gases, thereby occasioning a 
distention of the sigmoid flexure 
(obstipation) because of a detention 
of the contents, which then weights 
the flexure down upon the rectum. 
Thus we see exemplified how an 
aid may turn into a hindrance, as 
we already have observed, in an 
unduly contracted anal vent. 
The rectum is not straight, as the word itself 
would indicate, but curves to the right, then back 
well on to the spine, and then forward to the anus, 
which turns slightly backward from the lower ante- 
rior portion of the rectum. 

When these muscular-tube organs are invaded 
by disease, these very curves, valves, and bends of 

32 




Fig. 8. 



Retention of Gas and Feces 

anus, rectum, and sigmoid flexure are responsible 
for at least nine-tenths of the ills that affect hu- 
manity from the cradle to the grave — ills directly 
due to self-poisoning, technically known as auto- 
infection and auto-intoxication, the fashionable 
name of which is neurasthenia : a weakening of in- 
voluntary and voluntary nervous systems through 
lack of vent from irritating poisons, flatulency, and 
of course defective metabolism or nutrition. A 
better name would be vaso-motor neurasthenia. 

After these anatomical and physiological points 
have been noted, it is to be hoped that the reader 
has grasped the idea of how easily this portion of 
the bowels, when diseased, can prevent the normal 
descent of the feces and gases accumulated just 
above the diseased portion of the gut. It should 
also be easy to understand how a portion of the 
unduly retained feces may pass out, but in so doing 
be the cause of increased irritation and consequent 
contraction of the muscular tube, preventing thus 
any further passage of feces from its receptacle. 
Usually a portion of the escaping feces is caught 
and held in the rectum itself, converting the rectum 
into a receptacle. 

It is just here that the practical application of 
the principles deduced must come in. Let my pro- 
fessional brethren as well as all victims of bowel 
disease consider the following question, and then 
all will be clear : Since normal feces contain about 
75 per cent, water, is there any harm, nay, is there 
not decided benefit, in suddenly liquefying the im- 

33—3 



Intestinal Irrigation 

prisoned mass to, say, 99 per cent. — whether dis- 
ease exist or not ? 

When disease exists we simply desire to open 
the contracted or obstructed canal. What can be 
better, in a therapeutic line, than the kindly dis- 
tending influence of warm water to overcome the 
spasmodic closure of the diseased tube? In addi- 
tion to the gentle dilatation the injected water oc- 
casions, the water creates or calls into activity the 
lost nervous impulse to evacuate, which impulse is 
a step toward the restoration of the lost normality. 

Under the benignant influence of the water in- 
jected in the large intestine there comes a desire 
to expel it, which, when responded to, carries with 
it the feces so long imprisoned, and at the same 
time divests the walls of the intestine of the inevit- 
able incrustations. 

Thus, with purifying water, the foul pool is 
emptied, and the parts are cleansed so thoroughly 
that nothing is left to vex the inflamed tissue. 

Is there any sane person that can offer one valid 
objection to the use of depuratory enemas in cases 
in which the normal function of the bowels is 
lost through abnormal changes brought about by 
chronic disease ? 



34 



CHAPTER V. 

Rebellion of our outraged Internal 
Economy. 

THE small intestine is that portion of the ali- 
mentary canal which begins at the stomach and 
ends at the large intestine. Its usual length is 
twenty feet. The diameter, which at the upper 
portion (duodenum) is two inches, gradually be- 
comes less, until at the lower end it is but one 
inch. 

Now, the length of the inner coat of this small 
intestine — the mucous membrane — is about double 
that of the intestine itself. Think of wearing a 
coat twice as long as yourself ! How do you think 
this is accomplished in the case of the muscular 
tube under consideration ? Well, Nature, having 
a most peculiar function to perform, has thrown 
this mucous coat or tube into a thousand folds (val- 
vular conniventes, or "winking valves"). These 
folds form valves, occupying from one-third to one- 
half the circumference of the bowel. The greatest 
width of each fold is at the center, where it meas- 
ures from a quarter to half an inch. Over this 
great expanse of mucous membrane we find stud- 
ded ten million five hundred thousand intestinal 

35 



Intestinal Irrigation 

villi, whose office it is to absorb the food sub- 
stances in their passage through the canal. 




Fig. 9. 
Stomach, liver, small intestine, etc. (Flint.) I, inferior surface of the 
liver ; 2, round ligament of the liver ; 3, gall-bladder ; 4, superior surface 
of the right lobe of the liver; 5, diaphragm; 6, lower portion of the 
oesophagus ; 7, stomach ; 8, gastro-hepatic omentum ; 9, spleen ; 10, gas- 
tro-splenic omentum; II, duodenum ; 12, 12, small intestine ; 13, caecum ; 
14, appendix vermiformis ; 15, 15, transverse colon ; 16, sigmoid flexure of 
the colon ; 17, urinary bladder. 

Those that have observed the anatomical illus- 
trations of the small intestines must have been 
struck by their apparently inextricably tangled 

36 



Rebellion of our Internal Economy 



convolutions. In life, these convolutions are con- 
stantly changing their locations, as though they 
were a mass of worms. 

The large intestine begins at the caecum and ex- 
tends to the anus, or 
vent of the intestinal 
sewer. It is called 
the colon — the as- 
cending, transverse, 
and descending co- 
lon. It is about five 
feet in length. Its 
diameter is the great- 
est at the caecum, 
where it measures, 
when moderately dis- 
tended, two and a half 
to three and a half 
inches. Beyond the FlG IO 

Caecum tne diameter The caecum, dorso-mesial view, showing 

is One and tWO-thirds *he ileum-side of the ileo-caecal valve, and 

i i • i the beginning of the three muscular rib- 

to two and two-thirds bons (Gerrish } 

inches, the smallest 

part being at the upper end of the rectum. 

The muscular movements of the large intestine 
are much more limited in number and range than 
those of the small intestines. The area of its mu- 
cous membrane is also much less, notwithstanding 
the fact that it is thrown into sacculated pouches, 
or sacculi, by the contraction of the longitudinal 
muscular bands of the bowel. 




37 



Intestinal Irrigation 




Consider this tube, for it is really unique. Note 
the longitudinal muscular bands (Figs. 12 and 13). 
We find this tube to be five feet long when the 

surface made by the 
circular bands is 
measured, and four 
feet long when that 
made by the longi- 
tudinal bands is 
measured. Now, the 
four feet of surface 
must of course con- 
tract the five feet. 
Well, in the tube Un- 
der consideration, 
the musculo-areolo 
mucous tube is 
thrown into circular 
puckerings in short 
sections, between 
which are deep trans- 
verse creases, each bounded by prominent bulges. 
(Fig. 13.) An inspection of the bore of the tube 
shows a sharp ridge corresponding to each depres- 
sion of the outer surface, and a large recess collo- 
cated with each external protrusion. This external 
and internal appearance of the large intestine re- 
minds one somewhat of the flexible hard-rubber 
tubing used as a conduit for electric wire in houses. 
The sacculated pouches thus formed by the 
shortening of the bowel may become abnormally 

38 



Fig. 11. 

Cavity of the caecum, its front wall 
having been cut away. The ileocecal 
valve and the opening of the appendix 
are shown. (Gerrish.) 



Rebellion of our Internal Economy 

distended, and resemble the proper receptacle for 
feces — the sigmoid flexure. Even the rectum, in 




Fig. 12. 
A view of the position and curvatures of the large intestine. 32, end of 
the ileum ; 31, appendix vermiformis ; 4, caecum ; 3, ascending, 2, trans- 
verse, 8, descending colon ; 9, 9, 9. sigmoid flexure ; 10, 10, rectum ; 12, 
anus ; 13, 13, bladder ; 11, 11, 11, peritoneum — length from 4 to 6 feet, 
and a mean diameter of about if to 2§ inches. The sigmoid flexure is a 
receptacle for the feces, and each end is the highest and bent on itself ; 
this arrangement spares the rectum and sphincters of pressure and weight 
until the proper time to stool. 

39 



Intestinal Irrigation 



MUSCULAR BAND 




L.MUSCULAR 
BAND 



MUSCULAR 
BAND 



cases of chronic constipation, is usually enormously 
distended, owing to the overloading or filling up of 
the bowel with feces. 

I have given this somewhat lengthy resume in 

order to enable 
the reader to 
appreciate a 
most pertinent 
question. 

Let us see 
what we have 
found: The 
small intestine, 
with its mani- 
fold folds and 
its numerous 
pockets, made 
by the forty 
feet of mucous membrane ; the bends and curves 
in the five feet of the large intestine, with its 
numerous dams and pools ; and, lastly, the abnor- 
mal reservoirs for feces, liquids, and gases. 

Finding this, the question inevitably is, What is 
the best agent for cleansing this marvelously sensi- 
tive canal, twenty-five feet long, whose mucous 
membrane extends forty-five feet ? No one would 
think of taking, if he could, the foul sewer in his 
hands, and shaking it, fold upon fold, with the faint 
yet fond hope of sterilizing it. How can any mode 
of physical culture meet the requirements for effect- 
ing a cure of ulcerative proctitis and colitis, to say 



Fig. 13. 

Segment of large intestine, showing the char 
acteristic features of its structure. (Gerrish.) 



40 



Rebellion of our Internal Economy 

nothing about keeping the bowels sweet and clean ? 
Chronic, subacute, and acute inflammation, accom- 
panied with ulceration, located in any part of the 
body, requires rest to 
overcome the fever and 
congestion. Muscular 
exercise irritates and 
inflames the diseased 
parts. 

Another form of 
''physical culture" 
would put into the bow- 
els all sorts of stuff that 
cannot be digested, 
such as bran, crushed 
seeds, shells, raw food, 




Fig. 14. 

A longitudinal section of the end of 

etc that Set UD PXCPS- t ^ ie sma ^ intestines, or ileum, and of 
. . the beginning of the large intestines, 

sive muscular action or colon 



and 



cus 



secretion 
as the 



I, 1, a portion of the ascend- 
of mU- m § colon ; 2, 2, the csecum, or caput 
coli ; 3, 3, lower portion of the ileum ; 
ir r 4, 4, the muscular coat, covered by the 
Stuff passes down and peritoneum ; 5, 5, the cellular and mu- 
ni it" Tn trip Qarrpd cous coats; 6, 6, folds of the mucous 
• coat at this end of the colon ; 7, 7, pro- 
name OI hygiene, thlS longations of the cellular coat into these 

new cathartic remedy folds = 8 > 8 > ileo colic valve ; 9, 9, 

., , , , the union of the coats of the ileum and 

is prescribed and taken. colon 
Seeking relief from the 

painful effects, the patient finds that these " reme- 
dies " make the disease and its symptoms worse. 
Hygienic fool-killers are, like the poor, always with 
us. 

You are aware of the irritation that a grain of 



41 



Intestinal Irrigation 

sand will set up when it comes in contact with the 
mucous membrane of the eye. Then can you not 
realize that you will torment the forty-five feet of 
intestinal mucous membrane with like indigestible 
stuff ? It is estimated that ten per cent, of the 
really suitable food is residue matter with which 
the digestive tract has to deal and get rid of with 
as much economy and as little friction as possible. 
Then why increase this residue twenty or fifty per 
cent. ? 

More than nine-tenths of the human race have 
been content to depend on comparatively violent 
excitants, such as drugs, coarse food, and muscular 
exercise, etc., to relieve the bowels of the feces, 
liquids, and gases of a most foul character — the 
foulness due to putrid fermentation and undue re- 
tention. 

When will these prescribers and partakers ever 
learn that bile bouncers and peristaltic persuaders 
have an immense journey before them when they 
start to remove the foul accumulation of feces from 
the sigmoid flexure and ballooned rectum ? For, 
be it remembered, the normal receptacle for feces 
is twenty-four feet four inches from the stomach, 
and the abnormal receptacle twenty-four feet eleven 
inches — within two inches of the vent of the body ! 

Surely quite a degree of mental constipation 
must have existed in both the prescribers and the 
partakers to think such thick and dense thoughts 
as are represented by these bouncers and per- 
suaders. So you would cleanse the bowels with 

42 



Rebellion of our Internal Economy 

such unclean, poisonous, and irritating things ! 
What amazing hope born of ignorance ! Outraged 
Nature cries: " How long! how long! how long 
will my ' inards ' be so abused in the name of clean- 
liness and yet remain so unclean ? Ye benighted 
mortals, if ye would listen to me, your Mother, I 
would give ye a pure and wholesome prescription, 
for I would prescribe equal parts of enlightenment 
and water well mixed, and advise ye to take a por- 
tion of it fore and a portion of it aft, per os (mouth) 
and per anus. Thus and thus alone would I pre- 
scribe for ye ; such and such alone is the way for 
ye to do ; purify to cure, or cure by purifying." 

Constipation must not continue, for it means not 
only the clogging up of the large intestine with the 
foul sewage of the system, but also the drying of 
that sewage, which latter process implies the ab- 
sorption of poison. Now that you are in this con- 
dition, Medicus steps up and prescribes a cathartic 
mixed with belladonna or opium, or both. These 
latter are meant to quiet the mournful cry of out- 
raged Nature when the cathartic invades its sacred 
precincts. And it may be noted, by the way, that 
though belladonna, atropine, morphia, etc., tend to 
dry up the secretions of the mucous membrane and 
make matters worse by making them still more 
arid, still the action of the cathartic is usually so 
powerful that after the free fight with the pain 
soothers it triumphs, and produces a free flow of 
watery secretion into the dried, impacted mass of 
the bowel. 

43 



Intestinal Irrigation 

Does it not stand to reason that the greater 
portion of the liquid in which the feces were dis- 
solved and had fermented is re-absorbed into the 
system ? Why should the poor victim of proctitis 
and cathartics wonder why he has gout, rheuma- 
tism, and disease of the kidneys, bladder, lungs, 
liver, stomach, nerves ; why he has neurasthenia, 
debility, feebleness, loss of memory, inability to fix 
and hold the attention upon a single line of thought, 
apprehensions, etc. ? His wonder is childish, for 
deep in his heart he knows that he poisoned him- 
self. He knows this, but it seems that he must be 
reminded of the fact that there is a better way to 
remove the accumulated mass from the large in- 
testine, and to prevent in future the undue reten- 
tion of feces, liquids, and gases in abnormal sacs 
or pouches. The way that Nature prescribes is 
the resort daily, two or three times, to the enema. 

When the injected water reaches the imprisoned 
and dried feces, the crust is loosened from its hold- 
ings and the mass is moved toward the exit by the 
expulsive effort of the bowels. Previously the 
bowels were helpless with their load. As the sud- 
den flood of water is expelled it carries with it the 
inspissated feces ; whereupon the subconscious per- 
sonal Ego, who is the superintendent of the diges- 
tive apparatus and functions, congratulates himself 
on the delightfully refreshing manner in which the 
local disturber has been ousted. 

Such is the satisfactory decision of the arbitrator 
— Enlightened Nature. No longer need we bow 

44 



Rebellion of our Internal Economy 

to Medicus or to any other kind of " cuss," whether 
styled hygiene or physical culture. Arbitration of 
this sort makes life worth living. 

Now for Nature's benediction : " May that feel- 
ing of freedom from uncleanliness, internal and 
external, be with you constantly, and this double 
blessing make your joys flow so fast that in their 
rapidity they blend into a sun and radiate from 
your rejuvenated physical being." 



45 



CHAPTER VI. 

Gaseous Obesity and our Roly-polies. 

IS there any human being so ignorant that he can- 
not understand that when food stuffs in the 
gastro-intestinal canal ferment and putrefy they 
thereby generate toxic (poisonous) gaseous matter, 
volatile fatty acids, and putrid feces ; that such 
matter, acids, and feces are rapidly absorbed by the 
system, and that, if the system does not readily 
eliminate them by way of the bowels, kidneys, and 
mucous membrane, they will tend to bring on one 
or more forms of acute or chronic disease ? 

Gas is matter in its most rarefied state — a state 
that permits its easy entrance into all the tissues 
of the body, where it perverts by its presence and 
toxic effect the normal function of all the organs. 
Besides its poisonous infection, it distends or bloats 
the stomach, bowels, and tissues — a fact especially 
noticeable in the abdominal region, giving the ap- 
pearance of corpulency or obesity to many, when 
really it is only abdominal ballooning or gaseous 
obeseness. Roly-polies — and there are a great 
many of them — will have their pride greatly hurt 
by accounting for their condition in this way, but 
the truth must be told and they might as well face 

4 6 



Gaseous Obesity and Roly-Polies 

the facts first as last. Gaseous obesity, or bor- 
borygmus, is spoken of popularly as wind in the 
stomach and bowels. No wonder the roly-poly is 
sensitive on the subject, for this " wind " occasions 
rumbling sounds, eructations, and offensive odors 
— all of which are a great annoyance to the suf- 
ferer from dilated, displaced, and unclean digestive 
apparatus. 

Besides being generated in the system, gases 
may be swallowed during the act of eating, in the 
form of air (oxygen and nitrogen), and in liquids 
containing carbonic acid, sulphuretted hydrogen, 
etc. 

Micro-organisms swallowed with the food will 
occasion fermentation of the contents of the stomach 
and bowels, which if unduly retained become ex- 
cessive, foul, and toxic — therefore extremely harm- 
ful to the system. 

The gases generated in the stomach are the fol- 
lowing : carbonic acid, hydrogen, hydrochloric, am- 
monia, sulphuretted hydrogen, marsh gas, etc. 
They are partly absorbed or thrown off by eructa- 
tions, or they pass into the duodenum or small 
intestine. 

Gases are found throughout the small and the 
large intestine. These are the result of both the 
normal and the abnormal digestive fermentation 
and bacterial decomposition of the ingesta or food 
stuffs. Some of the gases are passed into the in- 
testines from the blood by diffusion. 

The production of gas is more copious in the 

47 



Intestinal Irrigation 

upper portion of the small intestine and becomes 
less rapid and abundant as the large intestine is 
reached. As formed or found in the intestines, 
the gases are : carbonic acid, hydrogen, marsh, am- 
monia, nitrogen, sulphuretted hydrogen, and sul- 
phate of ammonia. 

Considering the large amount of abnormal gases 
generated in the bowels and which abnormally dis- 
tend the abdominal walls for several inches and 
press upon the heart and lungs, and considering 
the small amount passed out as flatus, their en- 
trance into the tissues of the body must be very 
rapid and harmful. 

Stop the habitual putrefaction and mal-digestion, 
and then the formation of toxic feces, gases, and 
volatile acid will speedily cease. Then the erst- 
while roly-polies will shrink in circumference four 
or more inches, necessitating the refitting of their 
garments to the new and better order of things. 

Much has been written about the distention of 
the rectum, sigmoid flexure, and colon from the 
undue accumulation of feces. The fecal distention 
of the gut may extend along the intestine for from„ 
three to nine inches or more, which is a very grave 
matter indeed. But why is so much attention given 
to a few inches of impacted feces dilating a portion 
of the bowel, and none whatever to the prevention 
or elimination of gaseous matter that distends the 
whole gastro-intestinal canal to such an extent that 
the body is tightly inflated and the median parts of 
the belly bulge out like a balloon ? 

4 8 



Gaseous Obesity and Roly-Polies 

Cattle raisers are conversant with the gaseous 
inflation of their animals, and have to resort to the 
knife to puncture the stomach to permit the gas to 
escape ; otherwise fatal results would soon follow. 
Some animals, even, like most human beings, are 
intemperate in eating. When they consume too 
much grass they suffer from flatulency and colic, 
and require drastic treatment. 

Rather than let some worthy men and women 
die, ought we not at times to adopt the ranchman's 
treatment for flatus ? This harsh means, however, 
might be avoided by inventive science. Overfed, 
constipated, inflated man, victim of habitual flatu- 
lency, could easily have small gas valves inserted 
here and there along his gastro-intestinal canal — 
one, say, to relieve the stomach of toxic gas, another 
for the appendix region, and still another in the 
hernial region of the abdomen. Suppose overfeeders 
were to adopt the gas-valve fad, and discontinue 
the habit of using cathartics, soda, charcoal, pepper- 
mint, pepsin, whiskey, etc., as means of relief ! 
How in the world can a drug aid digestion when 
taken into a foul, gaseous, and feces-clogged canal ? 

A chemist cannot get the definite results he seeks 
unless he have the right chemicals and proper ves- 
sels. Just so with the spiritual Ego and his systemic 
chemistry of food : he needs a clean and healthy 
digestive apparatus for proper assimilation and 
elimination. But he gets careless, allows it to get 
foul, and then insincerely expresses astonishment 
that the chemical combinations are not such as one 

49 



Intestinal Irrigation 

could wish or expect. Other chemists, called doc- 
tors or druggists, come along and dose the poor 
victim of his own carelessness until they have 
ruined his apparatus completely. They have got 
to live, of course ; and it is their business to see 
that he does not escape so long as they can help it. 

Sometimes there is a reassertion of common 
sense ; the poor victim becomes disgusted with 
himself and his credulous acceptance of the doctor's 
dictation and his fatuous swilling of the druggist's 
decoctions. He gets tired of chronic ill-health and 
bowel troubles, and, lo and behold ! he does the 
simplest and most sensible thing in the world — a 
thing he ought to have done at the very start, or 
before he ever had the least trouble : He thoroughly 
washes out his alimentary canal with pure or anti- 
septic water. He drinks a lot of pure spring water, 
and he flushes his bowels with two or three enemas. 
Doctors and drugs are henceforth banished ; he 
gets well ! What a blessing to lose one's faith in 
the magic of drugs and the majesty of doctors ! 

Few comprehend the baneful effects of flatulency 
on the system, the most usual of which are fatigue, 
depression, headache, buzzing in the ears, deafness, 
vertigo, loss of memory, inability to fix the atten- 
tion, disturbance of sight, drowsiness, etc. A con- 
tinuous stream of carbonic acid or of hydrogen 
directed against muscular tissue will cause paralysis 
of the part. 

Physicians admit that in certain portions of the 
alimentary canal extensive dilatation may occur, 

50 



Gaseous Obesity and Roly-Polies 

independent of any permanent obstruction, in the 
lumen, or bore, of the gut. As a rule, however, vic- 
tims of proctitis and colitis suffer from more or less 
occlusion of the lumen in the region invaded by 
the ulcerative inflammatory process. 

Considering that the wall of the abdomen is often 
greatly extended by gas within the digestive ap- 
paratus, it is not amiss to assume that this gas may 
cause local distention of segments of the gastro- 
intestinal canal, sufficient to paralyze or render in- 
operative the parts. 

Suppose we make a rubber duplicate of the 
abdominal walls of the average man, and place 
therein rubber duplicates of all the internal vital 
organs — pelvic and abdominal. To hold the 
stomach, bowels, and other organs in place, we 
fasten them with elastic bands here and there, and 
make a generous use of cotton to support the vari- 
ous parts, which are all connected with many little 
circulating tubes, with strings for the greater nerves, 
etc. Now let us distend our thin artificial digestive 
apparatus with air or gas — snugly filling the ab- 
dominal space of our model, without tension, how- 
ever, or slackness of the various parts, which are 
happily adjusted and at rest. Now, be it remem- 
bered, persons suffering from flatulency are more 
or less in the predicament of the gluttonous animal 
referred to above : the gas will not escape at either 
end, however much of an effort it makes, or the 
victim may make to help it. 

In filling very slowly our thin artificial alimentary 

5* 




Fig. 15. 

The stomach and intestines, front view, the great omentum having been 
removed and the liver turned up and to the right. The dotted line shows 
the normal position of the anterior border of the liver. The arrow points 
to the foramen of Winslow. (Gerrish.) 



52 



Gaseous Obesity and Roly-Polies 

canal, note the distention along the canal as the 
gas accumulates. Then note that the elastic bands 
stretch as the various segments of the canal change 
location, especially the stomach and portions of the 
small intestine and of the colon, etc. The stomach, 
small intestine, and colon, as they dilate, shift about 
for room. The abdomen is seen to bulge out some 
four or more inches while the turmoil is heard going 
on inside. 

Continue this inflation and our rubber intestinal 
tract will display here and there a displacement and 
permanent abnormal enlargement of the lumen or 
bore. Suppose, further, that our complete model 
of the abdominal viscera and wall had tightly 
around its outer surface unelastic corsets, skirt 
bands, trouser bands, vests, etc., all or any of which 
held in or compressed its bulging wall — what would 
happen ? Why, something inside would slip out of 
place or burst and let all the wind escape, rele- 
gating our creation to the rubbish heap. 

Now, when a man loses his wind by the rupture 
of a tube, he is said to have expired, and his body 
is sent to the crematory — or ought to be sent there 
for sanitary reasons. It would be much more sat- 
isfactory, by the way, to our friends, after our de- 
mise, were our bodies sterilized while they " live." 

I hope I have made it clear that it is a most seri- 
ous pathological condition — inasmuch as it prevents 
the normal onward progress of ingesta and feces — 
to permit of the continued existence of an exces- 
sively dilated gastro-intestinal canal, with one or 

53 



Intestinal Irrigation 

more of its segments permanently enlarged — seg- 
ments like the stomach, duodenum, caecum, trans- 
verse colon, sigmoid flexure, rectum, etc. — and 
with pendulous abdomen, sallow and muddy com- 
plexion, etc. 

When to this condition is added a general dis- 
placement of the abdominal viscera, or of one or 
more of the organs of the abdominal and pelvic 
cavities, you have an objective picture of chronic 
ill health in all its severity. 

Are you sincerely desirous to know how your 
friends feel when you greet them ? Don't ask 
them the stereotyped question, " How do you 
do?" or, if you are a German, " How do you go 
it?" or, if you are a Frenchman, "How do you 
carry yourself ? " But ask them the specific and 
sensible question appropriate to our civilized hab- 
its : " How are you and your bowels to-day ?" And 
at parting it were well to say : " May peace be with 
you both — you and your bowels ! " 

The spirit of man can torment his personality, 
and his personality in turn can vex his spirit. 

Few people are aware of the fact that the stom- 
ach and intestines can undergo alteration in posi- 
tion. Many are familiar^with the fact that the kid- 
neys may be displaced, and are then called " float- 
ing kidneys " ; that the liver, pancreas, spleen, and 
uterus occasionally go on excursions, causing there- 
by considerable and numerous disturbances. And 
it is not at all strange that they should, since there 
is so much pressure from within, so much pressure 

54 



Gaseous Obesity and Roly-Polies 

downward, and so much pressure from without — 
all through the requirements of fashion, indul- 
gence, and ignorance. But the stomach, upper por- 
tion of the duodenum, and small intestine, caecum, 
the ascending colon, and especially the transverse 
colon and sigmoid flexure, are susceptible to vari- 
ous forms of displacement, inhibiting the ready 
flow or passage of food stuffs, gases, and feces 
from one segment of the digestive apparatus to 
another, until the vent is reached. 

Reviewing the ground already gone over, we 
have found that proctitis, as a rule, is the primary 
cause of sigmoiditis and colitis ; that these com- 
bined are the cause of constipation ; that this is 
the cause of indigestion, flatulency, and distended 
alimentary canal, and, as matters go from bad to 
worse, of permanent distentions and displacement. 
Is it any wonder then that there are so many that 
suffer from gastro-intestznal neurasthenia f 

Surely our digestive apparatus ought to have as 
much attention as a well-regulated house furnace. 
In the morning the ashes are dumped and fresh 
coal is put on. A similar process is gone through 
with at noon and night. Some may run their fur- 
naces on two meals a day and two dumpings of the 
waste material. 

When a boy puts a penny into a slot machine 
he gets what he expects and is pleased. The ma- 
chine has done its work in delivering the goods. 
Why should he give a thought where his penny 
lodged? In like manner man is always ready to 

55 



Intestinal Irrigation 

put food stuff, and other stuff as well, into the 
upper slot of his machine, for he gets immediately 
satisfaction thereby. But he is like the boy ; he 
does n't care a fig what becomes of the stuff so long 
as it does n't annoy him too much. Eventually the 
machine refuses to work, and seems unable to de- 
liver the goods at the other end ; something has 
become clogged or out of gear. Let me advise 
the reader at least to keep the passage clear by 
dumping the systemic furnace twice or thrice daily 
— using the enema to effect the result. 



56 



CHAPTER VII. 

Irrigation of the Assimilative and Elimina- 

tive Organs. 

THE habits of people in general do not seem so 
bad when one considers the average individu- 
al's limitations as to knowledge and thought. The 
fact is that most people don't know, don't think, 
and hence don't care. Let them read more science, 
think more sensibly, and act more seriously ; then 
their habits will be more satisfactory. 

The alimentary receptacle — the stomach or vat 
in which foods and liquids are received and mixed 
— is habitually converted by many persons into a 
chemical retort for all sorts of drugs and remedies, 
with the view of reaching and relieving the ills of 
the various organs of the body, from dandruff to 
corns. The writer believes that he can give more 
and better reasons for his confidence in the thera- 
peutic value of remedies than most other physicians, 
but he wishes to emphasize here the transcendent 
importance of common sense in their administra- 
tion. Before and above all else, however, what is 
wanted is a clean gastro-intestinal canal ; and his 
claim is that water, properly used, is the best agent 
to effect that cleansing. On a par with this canal 
in importance are the eliminative tissues and organs 

57 



Intestinal Irrigation 

of the system : the kidneys, mucous membrane, and 
skin. What therapeutic agent, properly used, is 
better than water ? After all the assimilative and 
eliminative organs and tissues have been thoroughly 
rinsed with pure, soft water, then, if it be still neces- 
sary to administer a chemical agent, one may be 
selected that will, with these organs and tissues in 
better condition, work wonders. If you are so 
foolish as to allow yourself to become foul from 
head to foot, cleanse yourself with water before 
resorting to chemical aids. 

Somehow or other the mass of even intelligent 
people, not to speak of the great mass of the igno- 
rant, and I may add even my co-workers in the 
healing art, are not aware of the supreme want and 
worth of water for internal and external therapeu- 
tic purposes ; they do not realize how the stomach, 
the bowels, and the kidneys cry for it in their neg- 
lected and infected condition. 

The stomach serves as a convenient receptacle 
to dump things into after the palate has been enter- 
tained and pleased — and about everything is swal- 
lowed but pure, soft water. As a rule the stomach 
takes very kindly to water. It is, moreover, not so 
piggish as to absorb it all and leave its surface in a 
foul condition, covered with ropy, slimy products 
of imperfect digestion. Immediately after degluti- 
tion of water, the stomach does just what it ought 
to do : its muscles contract and dump the contents 
of the stomach into the duodenum, where the prin- 
cipal act of digestion is accomplished. 

58 



Assimilative and Eliminative Organs 

As its name implies, the stomach (stow-make) is 
a receptacle made for the purpose of storing stuffs 
for nutrition. Here they are mixed and broken up 
somewhat, and then deposited in the second or real 
digestive apparatus — the duodenum. This latter 
organ requires water and organic fluids in liberal 
quantities for its digestive operations. Both organs 
need cleansing after they have finished their work, 
and the digestive and assimilative vessels require 
water, not only to convey the building material to 
their harbors, but also to eliminate effectually the 
worn-out tissues and the residuals of the digestive 
process. 

It has been said that were man to discover heaven 
(a clean and healthy locality) he would at once 
convert it into a hell (a vile and filthy one). Man 
is possessed of an organism of whose constituent 
elements water forms over eighty per cent. The 
alvine discharges ought to contain the same per- 
centage of water, if not more. The mucous mem- 
brane and skin, to be kept clean, soft, fresh, plump, 
moist, and free from odors, require their appropri- 
ate irrigation. Man may keep himself clean, both 
inside and out, by irrigating himself before each 
meal daily. The well-watered and well-washed 
body and brain constitute a heaven on earth for 
the indwelling spirit that needs these for its mani- 
festation. 

It does seem sometimes that man in his ignorance 
gets nothing right except to walk forward instead 
of backward. Even so, most likely he walked on 

59 



Intestinal Irrigation 

all fours for ages, judging from his progress to 
date, before he learned to walk on his hind legs. 
To-day we find him self-poisoned, auto-intoxicated, 
a gastro-intestinal neurasthenic. His bowels are 
filled and stretched with ancient feces and gases, 
and his stomach is burdened with undigested food 
and tenacious mucus. 

The average man's scanty excreta from the 
bowels are dry, hard, lumpy, and foul, exhaling a 
noxious odor ; and these excretions may be passed 
once a day, or once in two or three days, or with 
some persons too often, should diarrhea supervene. 
Two-thirds to three-fourths of the fecal mass is ab- 
sorbed by the system every day ; and this absorp- 
tion is accompanied more or less constantly by 
symptoms of indigestion, biliousness, uric acid, 
and many other distressful conditions. 

His breath and the exhalations of a garbage-can 
are much alike ; in fact they are twins, the only dif- 
ference between the human and metallic receptacles 
being that one is capable of walking and the other 
is not. Both manifest the same conditions. 

His mucous membrane is covered more or less 
with catarrhal discharges, which result in granu- 
lated deposits, especially near the orifices. The 
skin is often sallow, dry, yellow, scaly, flabby. 
The hair is dry, non-oily, with a scaly scalp, and 
often there is a loss or total lack of hair. The 
teeth are decayed, the gums are found to recede, 
and the eyes, muscles, joints, etc., are more or less 
affected by calcareous deposits. 

60 



Assimilative and Eliminative Organs 



&> 



Man is seldom or never in a normal physiological 
condition. He is either obese or emaciated and 
lean. Most bodies are anemic and ill-conditioned, 
a prey to several ailments. Of course, civilized 
man uses dru^s • he would not be civilized were he 
not to use on occasion a stimulant, tonic, sedative, 
narcotic, etc., and he has to keep in continual touch 
with a doctor, to take care of him by prescribing 
special diet, fasts, exercise, and what not for his 
numerous bodily infirmities. Generally these pre- 
scriptions are ineffective and leave him physically 
weaker and financially poorer, with the barren con- 
solation that he has really tried everything under 
heaven that the wisest knew or that money could 
buy. Yes, indeed, he tries everything : every- 
thing but water — pure, soft, spring or distilled 
water. He never — like the flirt — "thought of 
such a thing"! Very few " humanals " think 
it worth while to irrigate themselves inside and 
out. 

Victims of semi-ignorance, too, get things most 
abominably mixed. They are often half wrong 
and half right ; hence they never enjoy good, 
sound, robust health and its blessings. Physiologi- 
cally, these people are what old-time pastors used 
to describe as lukewarm — neither hot nor cold, 
neither good nor bad, neither dirty nor clean, 
neither fish nor fowl, neither one thing nor another. 
So we find them also complaining and looking for 
the fountain of health and strength, but not looking 
very anxiously — they are not interested enough in 

61 



Intestinal Irrigation 



first THORA- 
CIC VERTE8RA 



the matter. Whenever they possess an equal 
mixture of ignorance and laziness, there is not 

much hope for 
them. 

Note the position 
of the stomach in 
health, and how, by 
slight muscular ac- 
tion, it can free it- 
self of its contents. 
When dilatation or 
displacement, or 
both, occur, the 
power of rapidly 
expelling its con- 
tents is diminished 
to the extent in 
which the change 
from the normal 
position and size 
takes place. I have 
found that, if there 
is a normal passing 
down of the ingesta 
and also of the 
feces, the stomach 
will perform its 
functions perfectly. 
Fear of " stomach 
trouble " is ground- 

CEsophagus and stomach in their natural 1 ;f „ V^^r» th<* 

relation to the vertebral column and aorta. 1Cbb " J UU Kec P Llie 
(Gerrish.) ^ 



TWELFTH THORA 
CIC VERTEBRA 




Fig. 16. 



Assimilative and Eliminative Organs 

digestive and eliminative apparatus in good work- 
ing order. But this requires that you must keep 




.-CARDIAC CNO 



GREATER 
CURVATURE 



Fig. 17. 
Stomach and duodenum — the liver and most of the intestines having 
been removed. (Gerrish.) Shows the anatomical relation of the stomach, 
duodenum, kidneys, diaphragm, and the large artery and vein. 

them clean, and to do so you must drink plenty 
of water before each meal. 

The organs are held in position by a ligamentous 
attachment and abundant fatty tissue, which serve 

63 



Intestinal Irrigation 

as a connective cushion that furnishes aid in sup- 
porting the organs in their proper place. In chronic 
cases of self-poisoning, the victim, as a rule, becomes 
anemic and emaciated, and loses thereby the fatty 
support required by the organs. They are con- 
sequently apt to become displaced and the mus- 
cular tissue weakened, with the consequent pen- 
dulous condition of the abdomen often observed 
in both children and adults. 

The clay-colored, flabby, obese, anemic victims 
may retain their worthless adipose tissue ; but they 
suffer quite as keenly as if they had lost it — from 
the fact that this tissue is impregnated with poison 
and filled with gas, and from the further fact that 
this abnormal tissue presses on the vital organs 
here and there as the victim wheezes or puffs along 
on his road through existence. 

There is not the slightest doubt that nine-tenths 
of gastro-intestinal ills and their effects can be pre- 
vented or cured by thorough irrigation of the canal, 
from mouth to anus, if it does not itself perform 
the cleansing process three times in twenty-four 
hours. 



64 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Methods of Stomach Cleansing. 

LAVAGE is a term restricted to irrigation of the 
stomach — a term that has become more or 
less popular of late with physicians, but is not 
so popular with those who have to swallow a rubber 
stomach tube, or with the anxious mother or friends 
who are usually not permitted to be present on 
such occasions because of the disturbed and cyan- 
otic appearance of the patient — an appearance pro- 
duced by the introduction of the catheter. Much 
can be said, however, of the good results following 
irrigation of the stomach by the employment of 
the stomach rubber tube, and in a special class of 
cases its use is imperative. 

But my purpose in this chapter is to advocate 
the drinking of water as the means par excellence 
for effective irrigation of the assimilative and elimi- 
native organs, and to make it plain that this form 
of irrigation is essential for the preservation of 
health and the relief and cure of chronic inactivity 
of the principal organs of the system. Usually the 
drinking of water at regular intervals is sufficient ; 
but in exceptional cases a generous drinking will 
result in a complete unloading, which can be ac- 

65-5 



Intestinal Irrigation 

complished with ease and with little loss of 
time. 

Should your stomach be actually performing its 
office, the suggestions I am about to give will, if 
followed, keep it sweet, clean, and in good condi- 
tion, and will also flush all the tissues of the body 
as well. 

The first duty on rising in the morning should 
be that of flushing the colon, as previously recom- 
mended, and flushing the stomach, as now recom- 
mended. Take one or two goblets of water (about 
eight ounces each) at a temperature most agree- 
able, which, however, should not be ice cold. An 
hour or half an hour later, during the breakfast, 
take one goblet of milk and water or two of water 
alone, when the mouth is free from food. About 
eleven o'clock in the forenoon, one or two goblets 
of spring or distilled water, at its natural tempera- 
ture, should be drunk to cleanse the stomach, 
duodenum, kidneys, etc., and to flush the tissues of 
the body. At the noon meal one or two goblets, 
and at four or five in the afternoon a similar 
amount, should be drunk — the latter as a cleanser 
before the evening meal, at which about a pint or 
more is drunk to aid in emulsifying the food, as at 
the breakfast and noon repasts. As a rule, besides 
the amounts drunk at meal-time, there should be 
consumed as much as two quarts daily, and the 
best time for this is when the stomach is empty, or 
when it ought to be empty. At bedtime, one or 
more glasses may be drunk if one does not suffer 

66 



Methods of Stomach Cleansing 

from inconvenience from a full bladder during the 
sleeping hours. 

One should make water-drinking a habit, like 
eating, sleeping, defecating, etc. Water-drinking 
should be performed at regular periods during the 
day. System is as essential for the harmonious 
working of the organs as it is for the relations of 
the departments in a business, or of the details of 
any particular department. The guide to the order 
and temperature to be adopted is agreeableness. 
Find out by experiment what is most agreeable 
and beneficial to you, and continue the practice 
with slight variations adapted to the changes of the 
seasons and the conditions of the system. There 
must, however, be some training done in most 
cases, and what is not agreeable at first may be- 
come so. 

All persons suffering from proctitis and colitis 
and their symptoms, as described in the previous 
chapters of this work and in Intestinal Ills, will 
require, now and then, if not under treatment, 
special irrigation of the stomach to remove fermen- 
tative matter, particles of undigested food, and 
tenacious, ropy mucus before the next meal is taken. 
Otherwise the condition will be made doubly bad, 
for the fresh material is piled on top of the unduly 
retained contents of the stomach. As evidence of 
our civilization, we clean pots and kettles before 
the next meal. We even clean our fingers before, 
during, and after the meal. Teeth, mouth, and 
face get their proper cleansing. Why should we 

67 



Intestinal Irrigation 

suppose that stomach, duodenum, and kidneys, 
which receive all sorts of stuff, should remain clean 
without an occasional flushing ? They need rinsing 
out after brewing the wine of life. The water drunk 
between meals not only cleanses the organs through 
which it passes but irrigates the whole system, keep- 
ing a normal amount of water in all the tissues, 
which is as necessary for the maintenance of health 
as is the due supply of water to the plant in your 
conservatory. 

Observe the large percentage of human beings 
that are anemic, sallow, clay-colored, or white — 
a few obese, but the many spare, lean, gaunt — all of 
them expressing the disgust of the soul in having 
such an abiding-place. If all the organs and tis- 
sues of the body were kept flushed, what a fresh 
and inviting spot the soul would have for the culti- 
vation here on earth of the arts of life ! 

Water is the wholesomest of all drinks. It 
quickens the appetite and strengthens the diges- 
tion. It is the most effective agent in the work of 
elimination — in ridding the system of waste mate- 
rial. Properly taken, it prevents the undue clog- 
ging of the organs and tissues, and tends to cure or 
relieve those that had become clogged, and it does 
this by washing away the substances for which the 
system has no further use, and which if they re- 
mained would poison it. 

It is said that if water be drunk freely during 
a meal the gastric juice will become diluted or 
washed away. A similar objection is offered con- 

68 



Methods of Stomach Cleansing 

cerning the use of the enema. The horse, it is 
alleged, should have more sense than to drink from 
three to six gallons of water and almost immedi- 
ately thereafter eat a peck or more of oats and a 
quantity of hay, for it ought to know that there is 
no room for food with such an amount of water in 
the stomach. If such objectors could but see the 
horse smile at such arguments — for it secretly 
knows that the water does not remain in its stom- 
ach, and that its gastric juice is naturally strong 
and needs dilution — they would stand aghast. 
Would we not be better off if we were not influ- 
enced by fool talk like the above advice to the horse, 
especially as regards our internal economy ? 

The stomach, like the freight station, can accom- 
modate only a limited amount. Its contents must 
be rapidly dispersed, and every muscular contrac- 
tion and every respiration gives it an impulse. 
Disease and lack of irrigation will occasion an ac- 
cumulation or congestion of the contents in the 
gastro-intestinal canal, and then the victim of slow 
transit complains of indigestion, biliousness, flatu- 
lency, uric acid, and of many other ills. Your foul, 
furred tongue is a very good indication of the 
trouble below, so it is wise to examine it in the 
morning to learn your interior condition. Many 
persons scrape their tongue with a knife because 
of heavy coating and offensive odor and taste. Dys- 
peptics of this order need a thorough internal bath 
from above (per os) and from below (per anus). 

Some that suffer from undue gastric retention 
6 9 



Intestinal Irrigation 

and indigestion will find relief by flushing the colon 
and the stomach, as herein specifically directed. 
Others may find it desirable to start with a mild 
laxative and an intestinal wash-out with hot water 
in which some antiseptic or stimulant has been dis- 
solved. The special stomach cleansing is accom- 
plished by the rapid drinking of one tumbler of 
hot water after another, until a pint or more is 
taken into the stomach, or until a sensation of 
vomiting is felt, which may be encouraged by put- 
ting the end of the finger down the throat as far as 
possible or the end of a long lead-pencil wrapped 
in a little muslin. After as much of the contents 
of the stomach as is desired is thus cast forth, drink 
freely of water again, as much as you may think 
proper, which will be discharged into the duode- 
num. If this gastro-cleansing has occurred near 
meal-time omit the meal altogether, and in an hour 
or two drink as much water as is agreeable, to 
make sure of a thorough washing out of the erst- 
while neglected receptacle — the stomach. This 
special washing out of the stomach may be re- 
peated as often as occasion demands it. It fre- 
quently happens with some persons that an hour 
after a meal there is a hint that all is not well. This 
may be concealed or corrected by drinking a gob- 
let or two of water, which practice will permit the 
brew to go on without further attention to the vat. 
Water may be taken at all times of the day or 
night if occasion arises for its therapeutic effect in 
addition to its regular period of use. Usually 

70 



Methods of Stomach Cleansing 

physic, pepsin, soda, charcoal, whiskey, etc., are 
kept within reach, and are resorted to on such oc- 
casions with the thought that one or more of them 
will do the work. They will not, however, any more 
than red paint will act as an antidote to poor health by 
painting the cheeks with it. Water, hot water, especi- 
ally when used plentifully, is the only solvent of dirt. 

Very few realize how essential water is to diges- 
tion and to the digestive canal after the process of 
digestion is completed ; and that it has physiological 
effects on the system generally is less widely known. 
There exists a great natural demand for water to 
carry on the normal functions of the system ; for 
both atmosphere and heat draw moisture from the 
body, and a considerable amount is utilized in the 
processes of our daily work and in unexpected ef- 
forts. An organism composed of almost eighty per 
cent, of water requires a generous supply for sub- 
sistence — a supply equal to the expenditure of 
vitality involved in carrying on the numerous func- 
tions of body and brain. 

Some day it will be discovered that water is 
mainly the element employed in psycho-physiologi- 
cal processes. Water is easily changed to air, and 
atmospheric air to water, in the system. The 
generous consumer of air and water will have a 
good stock of vital or of psychical force on which 
to draw for the process of thinking. A thinker is 
a creator, and he must be successful if his thoughts 
be rightly directed and he have an ample supply of 
liquid food — water. 

71 



CHAPTER IX. 
When Enemas Should Be Taken. 

METHOD is imperative in this strenuous life of 
ours. Nature in her universal operations 
seems to sanction a uniform system in our daily 
conduct. Had we a regular time for doing things, 
periodicity would be established in our sleeping, 
eating, bathing, defecating, work, recreation, etc. 
Unfortunately, we are prone to ignorance, self-in- 
dulgence, procrastination, which render us careless 
and reckless in regard to the common-sense condi- 
tions of normal living ; and before we are fairly out 
of our 'teens we begin to bear a crop of proctitis, 
colitis, constipation, etc. 

It is in this way that periodicity as to stooling is 
lost, and whim, convenience, or necessity takes its 
place. As a result, we dribble or strain under the 
fecal and gaseous burden. This happy-go-lucky 
method accounts for much of the gastro-intestinal 
disorder complained of by so many, who "want to 
die " when the painful neurasthenic blues hover 
around and pervade their bodies like a dense fog. 

The insidious manner in which proctitis, colitis, 
constipation, and self-poisoning progress from mild 
through medium to severe stages does not, gener- 

72 



When Enemas Should Be Taken 

ally, alarm the victim of intestinal neurasthenia 
until many years have elapsed, and one or more of 
the vital organs have become diseased, and the 
whole system is thoroughly under its toxic effects. 
Thus, slowly, are the various segments of the gastro- 
intestinal canal changed to an abnormal condition. 

Suppose the tissues of one of your arms and 
hands were inflamed, constricted, or swollen, and 
that the nerves of motion were uncertain, shaky, 
and " kinky," — all of which conditions we often 
find in the digestive apparatus, — and that finally 
recovery takes place under persevering and patient 
treatment ; how soon, think you, could a sensible 
person expect the limb thus affected to become as 
useful as its companion that had never been dis- 
turbed by disease ? 

Unfortunately, we have not two sets of bowels. 
Ocean steamers are equipped with two sets of mo- 
tion-producing engines, so that the disability of one 
will result in no loss of speed. When man places 
as much commercial value on himself as he does on 
his machines or on a boat, he will either induce 
Nature to furnish him with an extra set of energy- 
producing organs, or he will take the best possible 
care of the only one she vouchsafes to him — a care 
that extends from os to anus. 

Civilized man does, indeed, take a little notice of 
a sore mouth (although indifferent about an unclean 
one), and will even try hard to have it heal, because 
a sore mouth may be seen, and is likely to disfigure 
him. But a sore anus and rectum may, for all he 

73 



Intestinal Irrigation 

seriously cares, play their painful and poisonous 
pranks until he is put to bed disabled or is sent to 
an asylum — or to the final inn where all diseases of 
the body cease from troubling and the weary organs 
are at rest. 

To re-establish that normal regime of physio- 
logical relations called health, after many years of 
perverse relations and disorderly practices, ob- 
viously requires time and intelligent, faithful 
attention to prescribed conditions. 

The factors or causes that militate against the 
removal of curable diseases are : 

(i) The neglect of a local disorder until it has 
had time to exhaust the general vitality of the 
system. 

(2) Inattention on the part of the patient after 
he has obtained temporary or partial relief. 

(3) The victim arbitrarily setting his own time 
limit for the cure of the disease. 

(4) His wilful disobedience of prescribed rules. 

(5) Inability to realize the importance of having 
the cause removed, as well as the local symptoms. 

Confining attention for the present to proctitis 
and colitis, I wish to impress the patient, as well as 
the physician, with the fact that no better measure 
for relieving or removing these undermining disor- 
ders can be adopted than the regular practice, 
twice or thrice daily, of intestinal irrigation by 
means of enemas. The persistent use of the 
enema is directly influential in relieving and re- 
moving the symptoms of such disorders. These 

74 



When Enemas Should Be Taken 

symptoms may be piles, prolapse, skinny tabs, fis- 
sure, dull pains, soreness, itching channels, stricture 
of the anus and rectum, ulceration, abscess, fistula, 
cancer, etc. 

In the early history of ulcerative proctitis and 
colitis, the local symptoms at the anal vent may 
not be noticeable ; yet the disease may be quite 
well developed for six or nine inches along the 
bowels. The early or more obscure symptoms are 
mild and unnoticeable ; then they progress into 
notice, sometimes most sharply ; finally we have 
severe and chronic constipation, indigestion, flatu- 
lency, diarrhea, etc., and, keeping pace with these, 
we have the stages of self-poisoning, which is 
known as auto-infection or auto-intoxication. 

With other measures, the most effective for re- 
lieving and removing these symptoms of proctitis 
and colitis is the enema night and morning. Dur- 
ing the long period of relaxation at night, the func- 
tions of elimination and repair are, with the great 
majority of us, going on under abnormal condi- 
tions — such, for instance, as excessive fermentation 
and bacterial putrefaction, which generate poison- 
ous gases that are absorbed by the nerves and 
bring about the condition of malaise we complain 
of when we rise in the morning. We then find our 
bowels distended and ready for relief — and also, 
strangely, " not ready " ! 

Before dressing, therefore, is the time to relieve 
the excessive pressure from gases and feces, and a 
slight enema is accordingly advisable, say from 

75 



Intestinal Irrigation 

half a pint to a pint of water, which should be ex- 
pelled at once. This removal of the contents of 
the rectum and perhaps of the sigmoid flexure will 
permit the contents of the ascending and transverse 
colon to pass more readily toward and into the sig- 
moid flexure, as though they had been invited to 
come ; and, indeed, such passage is rendered inevi- 
table by the removal of the local gas and feces in 
their path. When half an hour or more has passed 
and breakfast is over, it is time for the regular and 
complete evacuation of the bowels, by the aid of 
the internal bath, or, as some describe it, by a full 
flushing of the colon. 

In our early efforts to establish harmony and 
periodicity with the enema, it is advisable to resort 
to a mild vegetal laxative, in some cases, rather 
than to let the tongue indicate so much foulness 
and allow the feelings to become so intensely blue 
that they cannot be hidden by even the utmost 
effort at pleasantry. Extreme cases may call for 
different aids toward relief, until, one by one, these 
aids may be dropped — the last one to be discon- 
tinued being the enema. 

For a short time at the start it is, perhaps, best 
to confine one's self to two enemas, especially if 
fairly successful with the attempt at a thorough 
cleansing after breakfast and before retiring at 
night. The sleep will be sounder and the patient 
will be more apt to rise refreshed with a clean 
tongue and cheerful spirits. So much will this 
before-bed enema do for him that he may soon 

76 



When Enemas Should Be Taken 

find it unnecessary to take the preliminary injec- 
tion on rising, inasmuch as fermentation and gas 
will no longer trouble him. But individual experi- 
ence and intelligence must dictate the course in 
this respect. Let the patient study himself and 
note the demands of his system. It may even be, 
indeed it is frequently the case, that a patient re- 
quires several enemas during the day. When ab- 
normality has set in, it gives rise to all sorts of 
freak requirements, and the victim must, for a 
time, accede to its whims. 

Quite frequently, owing to various causes, the 
feces will descend into the rectum, which is prop- 
erly a conduit, not a receptacle. While there it 
occasions much nervous irritation of the whole 
system and makes its victim desperate. It is wise, 
under such a condition, to take slight injections for 
relief. Never allow any foulness to accumulate. 
Establish the habit of internal cleanliness. The 
new sense of bodily purity will be so great that it 
can never be outgrown. 

Nature easily accommodates herself to habits, 
whatever they be — normal or abnormal, wholesome 
or unwholesome, cleanly or uncleanly ; and the 
train of consequences will be accordingly good or 
evil. My point may be easily illustrated by the 
habits of " civilized " man in regard to bathing. 
Many persons never take an external bath, and 
are not conscious of any bodily discomfort arising 
from the omission of this presumably necessary 
practice. As the summer approaches, another batch 

77 



Intestinal Irrigation 

of " civilizees," so fortunate as to be within conven- 
ient distance of a pond, lake, river, or ocean, begin 
to feel the real need of a " dip," and are uncom- 
fortable until they get it. This is surely a sign 
that the spirit of cleanliness is beginning to stir in 
the breast of humanity. Then there is another 
contingent that bathe once a week, and should 
their regular routine in this respect be interfered 
with they would at once feel unclean — nay, even 
dirty, and, sometimes, " nasty." Others, again, 
bathe twice or thrice weekly, and this quota of 
the human race feels very uncomfortable and foul 
when hindered for a week from following this rou- 
tine ; indeed, such bathers often imagine that a dire 
illness is impending. Finally, the " salt of the 
earth " take an external bath once or twice a day, 
and, should their routine be suspended for twenty- 
four hours, visions of madness or suicide begin to 
haunt them until relieved by soap and hot water, 
or the cold plunge, as their habits require. 

Of course, the same rule applies to the routine 
concerning the teeth, facial ablutions, etc. Nature 
is stored habit, and she feels outraged when her 
proprieties are disregarded-. Let us pray, there- 
fore, that the habit of cleanliness may become 
contagious ! 

Now, the parallel between external and internal 
cleanliness is quite obvious. Those whose bowels 
move but once in two or three days do not realize 
how foul they are. Others have a scant evacua- 
tion once in twenty-four hours, and they imagine 

78 



When Enemas Should Be Taken 

that they are as clean as those that take an ex- 
ternal bath once a week think themselves to be. 
Still others have two stools daily, and they feel as 
clean internally as those that take three external 
baths weekly. And, finally, there are a few who, 
defecating thrice daily, feel quite as clean as does 
the most persistent external bather. Thus we see 
that cleanliness, external and internal, is a habit, a 
new nature, attended with exquisite comfort and 
pleasure — a quality that may lead to the goal of 
divine purity in realizing the joys of hydropathy. 

The wild woodland flower grew and blossomed 
without attention, attracting but little interest. 
After, however, the florist has cultivated it to the 
high stage of development in which we find it to- 
day, with its stalk, stem, leaf, and fragrant petals 
displaying their marvelous symmetry and beauty, 
we begin to appreciate the value of labor, pains, 
cultivation. In like manner, it is our imperative 
duty to give proper care to every requisite detail 
in the transformation of our body into a human 
flower of health, grace, joy, and harmony. 

The great majority of those that do me the 
honor to read what I have to say on internal and 
external cleanliness will, doubtless, not agree with 
me as to the frequency of the ablutions in twenty- 
four hours. Yet I have a suspicion that if my ob- 
jectors were to try an external and an internal bath, 
on both rising and retiring, they would soon con- 
sider the practice too delightful to be foregone ; 
they would soon develop more sweetness of char- 

79 



Intestinal Irrigation 

acter and be more particular as to the purity of 
their nether garments, and, finally, would seem 
ensphered by an atmosphere peopled with angels. 

My proposition is this : First make a man clean, 
internally and externally, and thus you may make 
him good ; after you have made him good you can 
make him healthy in both body and mind ; after you 
have made him healthy you can make him full of 
joy. 

To recapitulate : A good time to take your in- 
ternal bath is about half an hour after each meal. 
Cultivate regularity in this, and Nature will second 
your efforts and establish a periodicity for you 
by her suggestive impulse and call. Our internal 
economy should not be slighted as it has been. 
The intestines are good, faithful, patient servitors, 
ready to perform their lowly office even when we 
are inattentive and heedless. Sometimes, how- 
ever, they become rebellious, after they have stood 
more abuse than one would think them capable of 
standing. Let us reform our bad habits ; our servi- 
tors are willing to enter with us into better habits, 
and co-operate with us in a truly human life. Can 
you not spare a few minutes, three times a day, at 
regular periods, for inner purification ? You will 
find it very easy when once you make it a matter 
of routine. 

Now note this point : The work of your brain 
depends on the power sent to it by the gastro- 
intestinal canal. A motor car goes no faster than 
the power furnished enables it to go. So your 

80 



When Enemas Should Be Taken 

brain activity is ever on a par with the energy sup- 
plied from this usually despised intestinal source ; 
that is, it can never rise higher than the supply of 
this energy warrants, and it always falls to the 
level of this supply, for it depends on it absolutely 
for sustaining power. It would seem, therefore, 
that common sense would be sufficient to shame 
us into keeping clean, scrupulously clean, the canal 
that supplies us with working force — the canal that 
extends without a break from mouth to anus. Yet 
my experience shows that almost everybody cares 
more for his outsides than for his insides — more 
for squandering his stored energy than for looking 
out for its constant renewal — and that most patients 
are foul all the way down. 

Well-fed animals that have the range of Nature 
are plump, and have healthy hair, skin, teeth, etc., 
because their intestinal organs perform their func- 
tions frequently and fully. When animals become 
domesticated and " civilized," they become con- 
stipated and catch various human illnesses or grow 
a crop of their own. Well-fed "humanals" grow 
thin and puny, or bloated with gas, looking like 
corpulent clay men, without natural teeth, without 
natural hair, their skin dry and of a sickly hue, 
bloodless, fading away because of an early blight 
before they have completed their early growth. 
Heredity is blamed for the bloodless, nerveless, 
brainless body, when, as a matter of fact, its de- 
generation is due to foulness within. 

Birds, beasts, and savages (more fortunate than 

81 



Intestinal Irrigation 

civilized man) have the wide earth on which to 
stool when Nature calls. Their handy water-closet 
enables them to enjoy good health. As civilization 
advances, and business and social customs become 
more complex, water-closets get fewer and less ac- 
cessible. As a consequence, man has to use his 
large intestine for a storehouse. He has done this 
so long that it seems impossible to break him of 
the foul habit. But he is paying the penalty. 
Many have abused the bladder in the same way, 
and had this been a large organ like its brother, 
the colon, we would long ago have heard the stereo- 
typed excuse in regard to this function, " Oh, any 
time to urinate that I can find will do." Those 
who object to the new order of bowel relief should, 
on the same principle, object to frequent bladder 
relief. 

I submit this proposition to the judgment of un- 
prejudiced minds : Is it not reasonable that so 
harmless and efficient a remedy as the internal 
bath should be adopted by all intelligent persons ? 
Inasmuch as neglect — due to social, business, and 
other customs, and to lack of conveniences for 
ready relief — has brought upon us so much fecal 
poisoning and local disorders and so many abnor- 
mal and pernicious systemic results, it should not 
be considered too great a task to take an internal 
bath three times a day to amend our outrage on 
Nature — an outrage that involves our health and 
general well-being, here and hereafter. We owe 
it, not only to our possibilities, but also to poster- 

82 



When Enemas Should Be Taken 

ity, that fecal poisoning be banished. We have no 
right to communicate such a taint to our children. 
They have a right to be free from such poison. 
Do we ever think of their claims in this regard ? 
Let us leave them a better legacy, by adopting the 
thrice-a-day use of the enema for the purification 
of the alimentary canal ! 



83 



CHAPTER X. 

How Enemas Should Be Taken. 

METHODS OF INTESTINAL IRRIGATION. 

A SATISFACTORY appliance for taking an 
enema should possess the following features : 
capacity, adaptability, convenience, cleanliness, du- 
rability, and sufficient external anal and water 
pressure to effect a thorough flushing or an agree- 
able vaginal injection while one is in a sitting 
position over a water-closet bowl. 

There are several postures in which an enema 
may be taken. For those physically able, the most 
convenient, cleanly, and comfortable manner in 
which the thrice-daily inner bath may be had is the 
usual upright position on a water-closet seat. For 
those not physically able to sit upright, or for those 
that are not up-to-date and still adhere to the use 
of the fountain or the bulb syringe, the best method 
is not the usual sitting position, but the recumbent 
one. They are advised to lie on the right side, or 
on the back with hips raised. As a rule, a water- 
closet room is too small for reclining purposes, and, 
besides, the necessary rubber sheet and toweling 
convenience may be absent. Another drawback to 

84 



How Enemas Should Be Taken 

lying full length for the purpose of flushing the 
colon is that with short arms and the lack of exter- 
nal anal pressure there is apt to be an escape of 
water and feces around the anal point, necessitating 
much cleansing, considerable annoyance from nasty 
odors, and an irritating waste of time. 

Various devices, advertised as great inventions, 
have been resorted to for the purpose of over- 
coming such malodorous and uncleanly incidents. 
Among them is one that may be described as a 
colon tube, ranging from nine to eighteen inches in 
length, which can be attached to a fountain or a 
bulb syringe. The tube is usually of flexible rubber, 
colored red to hide as much as possible the cumula- 
tive evidence of saturated filth and bacterial poison, 
the presence of which a white tube would betray 
too readily. 

I fail to see the necessity of introducing a rubber 
canal of such length into an intestinal channel five 
feet long for the purpose of " cleansing" the latter. 
The project lacks common sense. What a ridicu- 
lous practice — to worm or bore a hole through the 
impacted feces as you work your tube upward, then 
to squirt a little water into the middle of things, 
or as near to the middle as you have managed to 
get with a tube that will persist in bending on it- 
self, and then to withdraw it covered with liquid 
filth ! What folly to put a canal into a canal — the 
one inserted being one-fifth the length of the one 
to be cleansed ! Is not the original physiological 
channel good enough to convey the antiseptic water 

S5 



Intestinal Irrigation 

or oil, or both ? Why not have the rubber canal 
five or six feet long if one foot is so essential ? 

We should remember that ulcerative proctitis and 
colitis have made the use of the enema a necessity ; 
that, accordingly, the diseased, constricted gut or 
canal must be treated very gently and not irritated 
in any avoidable way. The least irritation will re- 
sult in still greater muscular contraction. It stands 
to reason that the effort to reach the healthy por- 
tion of the bowel with a slightly flexible colon tube 
frustrates its own purpose, and that it is besides a 
source of serious and unnecessary irritation. While 
this rubber tube is being forced up one's bowels it 
often becomes lodged here and there in the valves 
and folds of the mucous membrane. It has been 
found that the effort used to dislodge it sometimes 
results in a doubling of the tube on itself in the 
form of a knot, and that the end first introduced 
comes back to the anus waiting to escape with the 
next push ! We need not argue that this forced 
looping and knotting of the tube is very injurious 
to the diseased intestinal region, and that no one 
would care to introduce it two or three times a 
day. 

Does not common sense suggest that the rational 
way is to open the bore of the alimentary canal by 
beginning at its end ; that liquid should be applied 
directly to the first feces encountered, and that as 
this impacted mass is removed the progress should 
be successfully upward? The liquid as it enters 
dilates the channel, and as it passes on and up it 

86 



How Enemas Should Be Taken 

eventually gets beyond the diseased section of the 
bowels. Here, by a gentle and soothing dilatation, 
we create at once an impulse in the imprisoned 
feces and gases to descend and escape. What 
other method is so kindly, and yet so effectual ? 
We avoid, by this means, irritating the diseased 
and constricted muscular canal ; whereas by the 
tube method we occasion still greater contraction, 
the inflamed surface having a tendency to contract 
and close tightly over the tube. The flood of 
liquid dilates the canal ; whereas the forced rubber 
tube, by irritation, contracts it. Besides, as has 
been pointed out, the conduct of the tube working 
in the dark is most uncertain. 

Suppose the rubber tube does finally reach the 
section of the colon free from inflammation ; that 
its passage thither has greatly increased the spas- 
modic contraction of the diseased portion of the 
gut, and that, of course, it had great difficulty in 
circumventing the resistance offered by the valves, 
curves, and short bends — suppose all this, and an 
idea of how the contents of the bowel above the 
diseased zone are imprisoned will dawn upon you. 
For, after the tube has reached this point of im- 
paction, the distention there is most unduly in- 
creased by the sudden gush of water, and, what is 
of still graver import, the presence of the tube 
prevents its return flow. Then as the object is 
being removed the watery feces following closely 
after are impeded by the increased irritative contrac- 
tion set up by the tube. 

87 



Intestinal Irrigation 

In short, this greatly extolled colon tube subjects 
the region of proctitis and colitis, as well as the 
healthy section, to just such objectionable pro- 
cedure until the amount of water injected becomes 
so extremely large that a means of escape is irre- 
sistibly produced by the great pressure above. Is 
it wise treatment to irritate the diseased portion 
of the bowels, and to distend still further the 
healthy portion above, in order to get rid of dis- 
tention due to feces and gases ? Without increas- 
ing the danger by injecting water into the already 
unduly distended colon by the use of the tube, the 
imprisoned feces and gases of themselves alone 
have been known to exert sufficient pressure to 
occasion prolapse of the sigmoid flexure into 
the rectum or undue displacement of the organ. 
Surely it were better to get rid of the imprisoned 
contents by removing them from near the vent and 
working one's way gradually upward than to add 
more to the store and burden, which only causes 
unendurable excitement and fierce demands for 
relief. 

The rectal enema, taken in the rational way, 
simply dilates the portion of the gut that is mor- 
bidly contracted — a procedure that is very bene- 
ficial and should be continued just so long as any 
remnant of the inflammation remains in the tissues. 
Kindly treatment is essential, because ulcerative 
inflammation is an irritable condition and tends to 
contract the muscular tissue at the slightest touch 
of a foreign substance. What, I repeat, is more 

88 



How Enemas Should Be Taken 

kind and soothing than antiseptic water mixed with 
oil? 

• Advocates of the colon tube assert that water 
entering the lower portion of the rectum will occa- 
sion ballooning of this portion of the gut. After 
an experience covering twenty or more years, I am 
in a position to say that there is absolutely nothing 
in this objection — that water used in this way can- 
not produce such a pathological condition. Bal- 
looning of the lower portion of the rectum is 
occasioned by impaction of feces, which remain 
lodged often for weeks or months at a time in this 
locality. Whatever dilatation the use of the enema 
may transiently produce would be only healthy 
exercise for the diseased organ. An instrument is 
frequently used properly to dilate the more or less 
contracted canal above and below the distended 
pouch for a distance of from six to ten or more 
inches. Nothing but good results can follow the 
proper use of the enema two or three times a day 
in all forms of local disease of the anus, rectum, and 
colon. 



89 



CHAPTER XI. 
The Internal Fountain Bath, 
the author's unique invention. 

THE author has searched the markets of the 
world for suitable apparatus for intestinal irri- 
gation, so that he, as a specialist in this line and in 
anal and rectal diseases, could recommend it to his 
patients. None of the appliances to be had, how- 
ever, quite answered the purpose he had in view. 
All of them had some drawbacks. Owing to this 
fact, after much experimentation he has invented an 
instrument that is herein fully described to show 
its serviceableness. Were this volume to be issued 
without this description, the author would be in- 
undated with interrogatories concerning the best 
instrument to be employed by its readers, or 
whether the appliances they have on hand would 
answer the purpose. As the object of this book is 
practical, not literary, it is not out of place, the au- 
thor thinks, to describe the invention and its unique 
serviceableness, as well as its special adaptability for 
the tri-daily employment of enemas. 

The instrument is known as " The Internal Foun- 
tain Bath for Home Treatment." The following 

90 



The Internal Fountain Bath 



illustration gives a very* good idea of its construc- 
tion and merits : 




(Patented December 23d, 1902.) 

Fig. iS. 

1, I, the circular soft-rubber water-bottle ; 2, 2, ribbon holding two ends 
of the water-bottle together ; 3, funnel for filling ; 4, hard-rubber stop-cock 
or shut-off ; 5, soft-rubber tube ; 6, reservoir for remedies ; 7 and 8, metal 
handle ; 9, anal cone-shaped support ; 10 and 12, anal points ; 11, vaginal 
point ; 13 and 14, folding support for Internal Fountain Bath. 

The Internal and External Fountain Bath, with 
its support, simply duplicates the usual water-closet 
seat. It can be placed on an invalid's chair, on 
a night stool, or, if there is nothing better at hand, 
over a tin or earthen vessel that will serve the pur- 
pose of holding discharges from the bowels or the 
vagina. 

91 



Intestinal Irrigation 

Features and Uses. 

Both physicians and laymen (men, women, and 
youths of either sex) will find the Internal Fountain 
Bath superior to anything on the market for use in 
taking an enema. It is the latest product of sci- 
ence, not only for flushing the colon, or taking an 
internal bath, but also for vaginal injection. It is 
equally serviceable as a hot-water bottle, water- 
cushion, foot-warmer, air-cushion, pillow, and invalid 
seat. 

Water Capacity. 

The Internal Fountain Bath holds five quarts of 
water, which is quite sufficient to meet the require- 
ments of various complicated cases requiring gener- 
ous use of water, while others who are not addicted 
to the cleanly habit will have water beyond their in- 
dividual needs, but they can regulate the supply in 
accordance with their wants by following the instruc- 
tions set forth in this chapter. 

A daptability. 

For the first time in the history of civilization, 
an enema may now be completed without changing 
one's seat. All that is necessary is to place the In- 
ternal Fountain Bath on the seat and to adjust it 
to the spatial dimensions afforded to suit one's con- 
venience. By simply changing the point a vaginal 
injection may be taken. 

92 



The Internal Fountain Bath 

The external pressure against the anus may be 
regulated at will. 

No complicated instructions are required to en- 
able the user to convert the apparatus into a seat, 
cushion, or pillow, or to fill it with air. 

In applying it as a hot- or cold-water bottle, it can 
be made to encircle the head, neck, arm, body, or 
leg. It can easily be placed under a bedridden 
patient, the enema thus being accomplished with 
ease. The nurse can sit on the Fountain Bath 
while administering a vaginal injection or enema to 
a patient. Occasion might occur where it would be 
most advantageous to use the vaginal point for tak- 
ing a rectal enema. By simply untying the ribbon 
and hanging the Internal Fountain Bath on a sup- 
port by the funnel end, one may have a fountain 
syringe of much merit. 

By detaching the soft-rubber tube (5) from the 
reservoir for remedies (6), any of the usual rectal 
or vaginal points in the market can be attached to 
the soft-rubber tube, and an injection or enema can 
be administered if most advantageous to do so 
under certain circumstances. 

Convenience. 

This scientific device can be used without assist- 
ance. It has one feature, moreover, that renders it 
unique among rectal appliances — namely, that you 
may take a number of rapid injections without 
changing your seat. You may inject a small quan- 
tity of water (from two to four ounces), and expel 

93 



Intestinal Irrigation 

it immediately ; then you may follow with a larger 
amount (from four to eight ounces), and expel that 
also ; after which the flushing of the colon — a com- 
plete internal bath — may be effected, using from 
one pint to two or more quarts. In this way, 
thorough depurating results may be obtained. The 
one, two, or three preliminary injections of small 
quantities free the lower bowel of feces and gases, 
which otherwise might be forced by the flushing 
process backward into the colon. With the Inter- 
nal Fountain Bath it is not inconvenient, as it is 
with other syringes, to take preliminary injections 
before a sufficient amount is taken to flush the 
bowels. After the flushing, the rectal and anal 
canals can be easily cleaned, as can also the integu- 
ment about the anus and buttocks, by letting the 
jet of water from the anal point play on these parts. 
All the necessary movements of the point are 
easily made with the handle, which projects between 
the limbs in front of the toilet seat. The point 
does not injure the rectum, which the unnecessary 
length of the ordinary syringe endangers. Points 
in common use are usually from two to six or more 
inches long, and are also too often apt to be in a 
septic (poisonous) state. 

Cleanliness. 

The medicine receptacle (for holding depurant 
remedies when such are needed) and the handle are 
constructed of metal. To the handle is attached 
a cone-shaped piece of hard rubber or metal for 

94 



The Internal Fountain Bath 

securing external anal pressure and for holding the 
anal point, which latter is detachable and easily 
kept clean. The anal point, having but one straight 
channel and outlet for the flow of water, may be 
kept aseptic (non-poisonous) with slight care ; a 
much-perforated, hard- or soft-rubber anal or rectal 
point becomes quickly septic — therefore danger- 
ous. The handle is of sufficient length to obviate 
either soiling the hands or impregnating the clothes 
with odor. This syringe affords a clean toilet seat 
when one is away from home — a most important 
precaution. It also obviates the danger of wetting 
or soiling the floor of the toilet room, or destroying 
the high polish of the woodwork of the toilet seat. 
Antiseptic oils, powders, tablets, or liquids may be 
used in the metal tank attached to the handle for 
that purpose. 

To bring away a quantity of feces does not ex- 
haust the purposes of the enema. The intestinal 
channel requires further cleansing, especially the 
rectal and anal canals and the external parts around 
the anus. By playing a jet or spray of water upon 
the anus as you finish the enema you avoid the un- 
cleanly practice of using toilet paper as a means of 
external cleansing after stooling. It is strange that 
otherwise cleanly people are content with bestial 
treatment of these parts. They imagine that toilet 
paper will effectually remove the excrement and 
the odor. They would not think it sufficient thus 
to cleanse their hands if soiled by excrementitious 
matter. It is the old story of " out of sight, out of 

Q5 



Intestinal Irrigation 

mind," and of letting any makeshift in such a case 
answer. But the spirit of cleanliness is abroad in 
the land, and the Silent Club of the Cleanly is being 
formed through just such agencies as that of the 
Internal Fountain Bath. Many have doubtless 
longed for a better practice but did not know what 
to do. The toilet-paper habit will pass, with the 
once-a-day habit of stooling and the constipation 
habit, for all three are uncleanly in the extreme. 

Durability. 

The metal and hard-rubber portion of the Inter- 
nal Fountain Bath ought with care to last a lifetime. 
The soft-rubber portion is made of the very best 
material and by the most skilled workmen the 
country affords, and may last for several years if 
properly cared for. 

External Anal Pressure. 

This is of very important assistance in flushing 
the colon, as it aids in preventing the return of the 
injected water and thereby promotes its convey- 
ance along the colon until it arrives at the region 
of the surgically famous vermiform appendix. It 
is not strange that both ends of the large intestine 
— the anus and the appendix region — have kept 
the surgeon quite busy, and, I may add, the under- 
taker and the lawyer likewise. These two ends 
are of extraordinary concern, because they manifest 
intense symptoms and pathological consequences ; 

9 6 

% 



The Internal Fountain Bath 

for modern medical practice is the heroic treatment 
of symptoms and consequences, and not patient 
search in the system for the cause of the disease, 
and the sensible treatment of that, as explained in 
my treatise on Intestinal Ills. 

Water Pressure. 

A generous amount of water pressure is obtained 
by sitting on the Internal Fountain Bath. It is 
most essential that there be a full and free supply. 
What more rational than the use of your own 
weight to generate the force of the flow ? The 
usual position on a water-closet seat is consequently 
the rational position for taking a flushing treatment, 
and with this object in view the Internal Fountain 
Bath was invented. 

The water pressure and the volume and force of 
the flow are under perfect control through the ma- 
nipulation of a hard-rubber stop-cock or shut-off. 
The user is enabled thereby to gauge the flow of 
water to a nicety. 

Time Required. 

The time required for taking an internal bath — 
that is, for a complete flushing of the bowels — will 
vary in individual cases. After removing the local 
deposits in and near the rectum by one or two rapid 
injections of very small quantities of water, two to 
four quarts are taken into the intestinal canal at 
one time, and this constitutes the enema proper. 
Now, many persons will find it advantageous to let 

97—7 



Intestinal Irrigation 

the flushing water enter very slowly, taking from 
two to five minutes, or even more. With some, if 
the water is allowed to flow in very rapidly, the 
various segments of the rectum and colon may not 
readily accommodate themselves to the inflow, and 
will too soon make an expulsive effort, returning 
the water before it has dissolved the feces or united 
with them, thus defeating the object sought through 
the enema. With other persons, however, the flow 
may be as rapid as desired. The speed must be 
left to individual judgment and experience. 

Temperature of Water for an Enema. 

The chief purpose of an enema is to produce 
depuratory results ; that is, to remove morbid mat- 
ter from the bowels and then to cleanse them. To 
accomplish this effectively and at the same time to 
avoid exciting an increased flow of blood to the 
diseased gut, the water should be about the normal 
temperature of the body, which is about 98^- de- 
grees. Water too hot or too cold will aggravate 
the sensitive, inflamed surface ; and, as it is this 
very inflammation that causes the abnormal action 
of the bowels for the relief of which the enema is 
taken, the temperature of the water is most import- 
ant. If it range between 90 and 105 degrees it will 
do, for within those extremes it will not be likely to 
increase the existing chronic engorgement of the 
tissues. Under no circumstances should very hot 
or very cold water be used for the removal of fecal 
accumulation. Physicians so incompetent as to 



The Internal Fountain Bath 

make a wrong diagnosis of the cause of chronic 
constipation and its numerous symptoms often 
prescribe a wrong treatment in the use of water. 
From two to ten minutes' use of very hot or very 
cold water in cases of proctitis and colitis will only 
increase the chronic engorgement of the blood-ves- 
sels and tissues and increase the morbid symptoms. 
When water is applied to the mucous membrane 
anywhere throughout the body, I use it hot exclu- 
sively, as that temperature has then certain advan- 
tages over cold. In the chapters treating upon 
the different uses of hot water, I give the hydro- 
therapeutic action of such liquid on the tissues of 
the body. 

Quantity of Water to be Used. 

The quantity of water to be injected into the 
colon at one time must vary in each case and also 
on each occasion. In the beginning of its use and 
for some time following, a greater amount may be 
required than will be necessary when, with its con- 
tinued use, a better action of the bowels becomes 
established. 

In cases of chronic constipation and semi-consti- 
pation, the kidneys, lungs, mucous membrane, and 
skin eliminate a daily accumulation of feces from 
the system equal to two-thirds or three-fourths of 
the amount of normal feces. This accounts for the 
frequency of chronic disease of these organs. To 
establish a new regfime in the mode of fecal and 
gaseous elimination requires much time and pa- 

99 LofC. 



Intestinal Irrigation 

tience in the use of the enema. Nearly all persons 
can take the enema with comfort and satisfaction. 
Now and then, however, there is a person who finds 
it a little troublesome to inject over a quart of water 
at one time, while most persons can inject over four 
quarts without inconvenience. I would advise pa- 
tience and perseverance on the part of those who 
find it irksome to inject a sufficient amount thor- 
oughly to cleanse the colon, or the portion thereof 
involved in undue accumulation. 

Enough water should be injected to bring away 
what would constitute the normal amount of feces 
to be passed at a regular stool. Gradually, as the 
practice is established by the use of the enema 
twice or thrice daily, it will be easy to determine 
the proper amount of feces to pass. And note this 
fact : it is just as easy to establish the habit of 
three evacuations in twenty-four hours as of two 
or one. 

Whenever the amount of water injected proves 
sufficient at any time to bring away all the feces 
that should pass, it is not necessary at that sitting 
to repeat the dose, except it be for subsequent 
cleansing, as a sort of gargle. No possible harm 
can come from the generous use of the enema 
during a lifetime ; indeed, its constant use will 
prolong life and make it more comfortable. 



IOO 



CHAPTER XII. 

Benefits of the Inner Bath. 

I SPEAK from clinical observation with the use 
of various rectal and colon specula, of which I 
have over fifty. I have watched the progress of 
cases that were using the enema twice or thrice 
daily, and of cases that were also using the intesti- 
nal recurrent douche, which latter required an 
hour's continuous application of hot water, and I 
know, therefore, whereof I speak when I affirm its 
salutary effect both on the local organs and on the 
general system. 

Many that write about the use or abuse of the 
enema have never seen the mucous membrane of 
the rectum and colon. Most of what is written on 
the subject is worthless. The author of this book 
writes from the accumulated experience of daily ex- 
aminations with specula for a period of over twenty- 
three years. Had he merely used his fingers or hand 
for making rectal examinations, or had he contented 
himself with prescribing for symptoms reported by 
the sufferer, his views and opinions as to the use 
and benefits of the internal bath would have been 
on a par with those that, by the old methods, make 
futile efforts in diagnosis and treatment. 

IOI 



Intestinal Irrigation 

Some good souls now and then become over- 
solicitous as to the matter they should pass when 
their bowels are already empty, and they feel 
alarmed if the enema fails to produce an evacua- 
tion. Such timid ones should remember that what 
they cannot accomplish at one time and with one 
attempt they may at the next, and that thus slowly 
the new order of fecal elimination will become 
established. It takes time and patience ; but is 
this cause for apprehension when diagnosis, treat- 
ment, and means of relief are right ? I claim that 
flushing of the colon is the best means for removal 
of the consequences of proctitis and colitis, and 
that it should be employed by all that have these 
chronic ailments. Let them get relief for the 
symptoms at once and in this rational way, after 
which let them seek scientific treatment for the ail- 
ments themselves ; for, sooner or later, they will 
be compelled to seek it by the severe complications 
that will inevitably set in. 

TRY SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL MEASURES. 

Some persons find difficulty in estimating — or 
think they do, which in most cases is nearer the 
truth — the amount of water they can inject at one 
time, when it would work a great relief to their 
bowels were they able to inject from two to four 
quarts. It is half the battle to know your efforts 
are rightly directed ; for, when you are defeated, 
you will try a thousand and one changes — an ex- 



102 



Benefits of the Inner Bath 

periment first with one element of the difficulty and 
then with another. You will experiment with the 
temperature, with the speed of flow into the rectum 
and colon, with intermittent flow, etc. Be a little 
scientific and original in this matter, I pray you, 
and know no defeat! 

As to the intermittent flow, the following way 
may be found judicious in some cases : Take in 
just sufficient water — a few ounces perhaps — to 
provoke an evacuation, and proceed till you have 
taken half a dozen or more. After this you can 
take a greater quantity for a washout. But this is 
not exactly what is meant by the term " intermit- 
tent flow." It means that you may make the ex- 
periment — if you find it difficult to fill up after 
ridding yourself of the local accumulation — of 
turning off the stop-cock for a moment, thus giving 
your bowels a slight rest, and then turning it on 
again, alternating in this way for some minutes. 
Many little devices of similar utility will suggest 
themselves to those who know no defeat. Remem- 
ber that, now that you are in serious trouble, it is 
not the easiest thing in the world to get out of 
it. 

Should your stomach raise objections to the 
enema, change the time. If abdominal pains are 
severe, change the temperature of the water and 
the time and manner of injecting it. In other 
words, do something different, but be determined 
to conquer and take the internal bath at proper 
periods every day. 
103 



Intestinal Irrigation 

LIBERATING THE WATER. 

Some persons who find no trouble at all in taking 
a large quantity of water have much difficulty in 
expelling it, or rather in expelling all of it at once. 
Various methods may be resorted to to liberate 
the retained water. One is to inject a little more, 
as a provoker, when all will escape without further 
difficulty. Another method is to resort to various 
motions of the arms and body. Some find relief 
by raising and projecting both arms together slowly, 
and then stretching and holding them aloft for a 
few moments. Other methods are : to twist the 
trunk a few times, to walk up and down a little, to 
bend forward and backward, etc. Still another 
method is to massage the abdominal walls, begin- 
ning at the ascending colon (see Fig. 12), passing 
upward to the left along the transverse colon, and 
then downward until the lower portion of the sig- 
moid flexure is reached. When beginning the 
massage, one should use stroking movements from 
right to left over the entire surface, and then go 
over it again with rotary strokes. Some may find 
it advantageous to knead the abdominal muscles, 
gradually reaching the deeper parts as the air is ex- 
pelled from the lungs, which expulsion may change 
the position of the various segments of the in- 
testine and thus afford an opportunity for the feces, 
gases, and water to escape. Before rising in the 
morning and retiring at night, it will be found ad- 
vantageous by some persons to spend about ten 

104 



Benefits of the Inner Bath 

minutes in making the three kinds of manipula- 
tions described. It is an excellent practice for 
every one to lie flat on the chest and abdomen and 
draw in several deep breaths just before rising. 
This exercise will strengthen the muscles of those 
parts and benefit the internal organs as well. 

THE ENEMA AS A PERMANENT PRACTICE. 

In the effort to restore the long-abused bowel to 
its normal functioning by the use of the enema and 
massage, there may be, in the beginning of such 
treatment, an exceptional case in which a mild laxa- 
tive is indicated as the desirable thing, rather than 
that a furred tongue and base bodily feelings shall 
evidence too much foulness all the way up to the 
mouth. 

The enema, of course, constitutes the chief means 
and mainstay of relief from obstipation of the bow- 
els, and one by one the other aids are to be omitted. 
Moreover, when the time comes that the bowel is 
freed from the disease that occasioned the occlu- 
sion and obstipation, — that is to say, when the bow- 
els evacuate themselves naturally three times a day, 
— then the enema itself may be omitted, or it may 
be continued without harm by those whose sense 
of cleanliness would induce them to keep up the 
practice in preference to the uncleanly habit of 
using toilet paper as a partial means toward clean- 
liness. Surely there is no harm in substituting 
a better habit for a worse one — one, moreover, that 

105 



Intestinal Irrigation 

we should be ashamed to continue ! As no one 
would think of cleaning his soiled fingers with 
toilet paper, as already said, so no one with any 
real sense of decency will continue the attempt to 
clean his anal orifice with such material when he 
has learned a better and more effective way. Like- 
wise, after having learned the rational mode of re- 
lieving the surcharged bowels, no wise person will 
continue the use of physic, coarse food, gymnastic 
exercises, and other futile and foolish practices as 
remedial measures for intestinal ailments. 

No one suffering from proctitis and colitis can 
have a clean and healthy sigmoid flexure and rec- 
tum unless these be kept clean by the regular use, 
three times a day, of the enema. From the day 
when the disease invades these parts there is and 
will continue to be a clogged, plastered, or incrusted 
passage for more or less of the entire length of the 
colon. This must be so in the nature of things, 
since these organs are unable to perform their func- 
tions while the disease is present. Just think of 
possessing a filthy, congested intestinal canal, with- 
out one day of real cleanliness for twenty, forty, 
sixty, or more years ! It is not the easiest thing in 
the world to cleanse this channel even by the use 
of the enema ; for the ancient contents refuse dis- 
lodgment even after repeated flushings, and it is 
only after many days of persistent and patient irri- 
gation that the intestines are freed. 

Some persons are apprehensive as to the quan- 
tity of water the large intestine will hold with 

1 06 



Benefits of the Inner Bath 

safety. Let me reassure them. It is capable of 
holding about three gallons without too great dis- 
tention. One-third of this amount, however, is 
quite sufficient to bring away the accumulated fecal 
mass, and in many cases a much smaller amount 
will answer the purpose — especially when, as ad- 
vised, it is used two or three times within twenty- 
four hours. After a thorough evacuation, water 
should be injected one or more times until it re- 
turns clear and free from fragments of feces. 

If I were asked to name the greatest curse 
parents could inflict upon their helpless offspring, 
I would say fecal auto - intoxication. A large 
volume could be written on the subject, and I trust 
the hints here given will lead to discussion of this 
grave matter. 



107 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Objections to the Use of the Enema Answered. 

THE privilege of raising objections belongs to 
the ignorant as well as to the intelligent. But 
the objector is under as great obligations to state 
his reasons as the advocate. 

The first plausible objection to the use of the 
enema is that it is not natural. 

Admitting this charge, I would say that, inas- 
much as proctitis, colitis, and constipation are un- 
natural, the use of a preternatural or, in other 
words, a rational means to overcome the conse- 
quences of these diseases is imperative. The 
enema is such a means. 

Can any one that suffers from proctitis, etc., 
have a natural stool ? Unnatural conditions require 
preternatural aids, as we all know. The injected 
water dilates the constricted portion of the gut and 
arouses a revulsive impulse to expel the invading 
water. In obeying this impulse, the imprisoned 
feces, gases, etc., are ejected with the water. 

It may be unnatural to put water into the rec- 
tum, etc., but once there its expulsion from healthy 
bowels would be quite natural. No natural action 
can be expected from unhealthy bowels ; they do 

108 



Objections Answered 

the best they can under the circumstances. Eye- 
glasses, false teeth, crutches, etc., are unnatural 
but invaluable aids, but no more so than is the 
enema as a means of relief from overloaded bowels. 
The enema, moreover, be it noted, not only aids 
the system by relieving it of its load : it cleanses 
and soothes an organ that must keep at work 
and perform its function even when invaded by 
disease. 

Surely it is unhygienic and irrational to ignore 
the valuable service of the enema in cases in which 
the bowels are in an unnatural condition. 

The second objection is that the water will wash 
away the mucus from the mucous membrane of 
the bowels and leave them dry and parched and 
thus apt to crack and break in two. I would re- 
mind the objector that, since about seventy-five per 
cent, of the normal feces is water, it seems strange 
that so great a quantity of water in contact with 
the mucous surface of the bowels should not also 
cause dryness. 

The integument of the body and that of the 
mucous membrane are similar in structure, yet who 
ever had a fear of producing dryness of the skin by 
much application of water? The mucous mem- 
brane is simply the skin turned inward ; and since 
it is much more vascular it is less apt to become 
dry — if, indeed, its dryness were at all possible. 
The objector should also remember that the body 
is composed of over eighty per cent, of water — an 
organism not to be made dry or parched by the 
109 



Intestinal Irrigation 

application of water to the skin or to the mucous 
membrane two or three times a day. 

The mucous membrane of the lower bowel is not 
unlike that of the mouth, throat, or stomach. Do 
you realize how often the upper end of the intestinal 
canal is washed or bathed daily with liquids, — soft 
and hard drinks, hot and cold, — especially by those 
who have formed the drink habit instead of the 
enema habit? They have no fear of drying the 
mucous membrane thereby ; but, if you can instill 
this fear, they will increase the quantity with 
pleasure ! 

This second objection, being the result of too 
vivid an imagination and too little reflection, is a 
very nonsensical objection indeed. 

A third objection is that if you begin the use of 
the enema you will have to continue its use ; you 
can't stop, and, lo and behold ! the enema habit is 
formed, — a new habit in addition to the many 
habits civilized man is already carrying : the con- 
stipated habit, the physic habit, the sand, bran, 
sawdust-food habit, the muscular peristaltic habit, 
etc., — and with all these habits the poor victim of 
proctitis and intestinal foulness wonders that he is 
alive. 

Usually the first symptom of proctitis is constipa- 
tion, and for relief the enema habit should be 
formed and continued while the constipation re- 
mains. When the proper means are found to re- 
move the intestinal inflammation — proctitis and 
colitis — then the constipation will disappear, and 



no 



Objections Answered 

with its disappearance the enema habit can be dis- 
continued. But let it be well noted that the enema 
is itself an aid in curing the cause, an aid superior 
to any other at our command. A cleanly habit 
ought not to be an objectionable one, especially in 
cases in which it is most needed to prevent toxic 
substances from entering the system. 

A fourth objection is that after taking the first 
enema the constipation is worse. 

With many persons a certain amount of undue 
accumulation of feces will excite a sufficient muscu- 
lar effort of the gut to force the dried mass through 
the proctitis- and colitis-strictured bowels. This 
unnatural effort may occur once a day or once in 
two or three days, and has doubtless been a habit 
of many years' duration. 

To introduce a new order of conduct on the part 
of the bowels requires time. If the bowels have 
been in the habit of expelling feces in the morning, 
and an enema were taken the night before, there 
might be no desire to stool the next morning be- 
cause of the fact that the bulk or accumulated mass 
of excrement was no longer there to create a vigor- 
ous call or impulse for defecation. 

But we have found the extent of local damage 
and reflex injury to the organs, and more especially 
we have found the constant absorption of poisons 
into the system, due to the presence of feces. It 
is for this reason that the elimination of feces twice 
or thrice in twenty-four hours is advised. The 
condition for which an enema is used is disturbing 



in 



Intestinal Irrigation 

and poisoning to the system. It is, therefore, a 
most unnatural condition. What is more rational, 
then, than to employ an " unnatural " yet not harm- 
ful means to bring about a more normal condition, 
one free from poisoning and irritating conse- 
quences ? 

A fifth objection is made by those who have as a 
symptom of proctitis a large development of pile 
tumors or hemorrhoids (distended mucous mem- 
brane). The objection is that at times these tumors 
or sacs prolapse very freely during the act of ex- 
pelling the injected water. But this prolapse occurs 
in many cases whether water is used or not. 

A certain amount of anal irritation caused by the 
passage of feces occurs, causing contraction of the 
circular muscular tissue that forms the anal and 
rectal canal, also of the longitudinal muscular bands 
and the levator muscles of the organs. The enema 
lessens or entirely diminishes the irritation of pass- 
ing feces, and the natural result is that the serum- 
filled sacs called piles and the tissue loosened by 
the inflammatory product would more readily pro- 
lapse during the act of defecating. It is simply a 
choice between irritation of the stool keeping the 
tissue up and no irritation permitting a prolapse. 

Of course, if there be no expulsion of feces and 
water the stretched or dilated sacs may keep their 
places in the rectum. And then again the enema 
may be used for quite a period, when all at once a 
large prolapse of sacculated mucous membrane oc- 
curs, and the enema is thought to be the cause of 



112 



Objections Answered 

it. That this is not the cause, let it be remembered 
that in all cases of proctitis the chronic inflamma- 
tion is apt to become subacute or acute, and that 
this intense engorgement and enlargement of the 
tissue with blood and the increased fever in the 
parts often result in prolapse at any time, especially 
at times of convulsive effort at evacuation. 

Whatever follows the proper use of an enema, 
even though what follows be annoying, should not 
be blamed on the enema, for its action is most 
kindly, lessening, as it does, the irritation that other- 
wise would be more severe when the feces pass 
through a disease-constricted canal. 

The sixth objection is that the use of the enema 
will weaken the bowels, which are already too 
" weak " to expel their contents. " Atony, paralysis, 
fatty degeneration of the gut, are bad enough," say 
these objectors, " without having an enema increase 
their uselessness." Diagnosis wrong and objection 
groundless ! 

Distend and contract an organ for a short time 
two or three times a day, and it will gain in strength 
from the exercise. Every one knows that this is 
the case. What more gentle means of exercising 
the large intestine than by the enema? 

But the truth of the matter is, that in all cases of 
proctitis and constipation the diseased portion of 
the gut is too active in its muscular movements, 
contracting spasmodically, as it does, at even the 
suggestion or suspicion of feces near it. Every 
impulse of the bowels above the constricted section 

113-8 



Intestinal Irrigation 

to force the feces down through the closed bore 
only intensifies the spasmodic action and increases 
the muscular obstruction, compelling the victim to 
resort to some one of the many drastic means of 
relief. 

The enema does no more than kindly to dilate 
the constricted region, which, when dilated, evokes 
a harmonious concerted action of all the nerves and 
muscles to pass along and down the burden of 
feces, which, without the aid of a flood of water, 
they had been incapable of moving, and would have 
had to leave to poison the system. 

The seventh objection is quite naive : " Inasmuch 
as the Indians of this country had no use for the 
enema, why should we resort to it ? " 

The all-sufficient answer to this objection is that 
the Indians lived a natural life, while ours is artificial. 
Much can be said on this point, but the reader is 
surely rational enough to follow out the distinction 
suggested. Our lives are much more important 
than were the lives of the aborigines of this country, 
and our "demands of Nature" are more exigent. 
If your life is of no greater value than theirs, for 
leisure's sake don't use the enema ! You will be 
taking too much trouble. It really should seem 
that the cleanliness of the skin and mucous mem- 
brane, the care we take of our bodies, is an indica- 
tion and measure of our sense of refinement. An 
ancient Scripture hath it : " Let those that are filthy, 
be filthy still." It all depends upon how you wish 
to be classed — with the filthy or the cleanly. 

114 



Objections Answered 

The eighth objection to be noted is the fear of 
"poking things" (points of instruments) " into the 
rectum." 

This looks like a real objection. No healthy, 
nor even unhealthy, organ, for that matter, should 
be " abused." And what seems more likely to cause 
it trouble than to poke a hard- or soft-rubber point 
or tube through its vent in opposition to its bent 
or inclination ? Still, the muscles of the vent are 
strong, and they soon accommodate themselves to 
the practice. Their slight disinclination is not to 
be considered alongside of the relief and cure you 
effectuate by the use of the enema. 

Have no fear that the point will occasion disease 
when intelligently used. Always see to it that the 
point is scrupulously clean. Those made of hard 
rubber or metal can be kept so without effort. Soft- 
rubber points are always foul and dangerous, es- 
pecially after they are used a few times. A good 
rule is never to put a point higher in the bowel 
than is absolutely necessary. 

The ninth objection seems serious. It is that 
in taking an enema the water escaping from the 
syringe point will injure the mucous membrane 
where the jet strikes. But on examination this ob- 
jection falls to the ground ; for it stands to reason 
the jet cannot directly hit the surface for more than 
a moment. Immediately thereafter the accumula- 
tion of water will force the jet to spend its energy 
on the increasing volume, to lift it out of the way 
so that the continuous inflow may find room. 

"5 



Intestinal Irrigation 

But even were it possible for the jet to strike a 
definite section of the mucous membrane during the 
taking of the enema, it could do no harm provided 
the water be at the proper temperature. And this 
is true even if a hydrant pressure be used. Not a 
few persons use the hydrant pressure of their 
houses in taking an enema. For a really success- 
ful flushing of the colon a considerable pressure is 
requisite to force the volume up and along a dis- 
tance of five feet, especially when sitting upright. 
But it is folly to use a long syringe point, since it 
is like introducing one canal into another for the 
purpose of cleansing it. Therefore, have no fear 
from the use of proper syringe points ; the jet of 
water will not hurt the mucous membrane. My 
professional brethren at least ought to know that 
the idea of such harm is sheer nonsense. 

The tenth objection to using an enema is in 
being obliged to use it from the fact of having such 
a disease as chronic inflammation of the rectum 
and colon. Every victim hates to be compelled to 
do a thing ; and the victim of proctitis and co- 
litis is no exception to the rule. In fact, he is 
beginning to realize that unless he uses it his sys- 
tem will be poisoned by the absorption of the 
sewage waste. Let the victim object to the dis- 
ease that necessitates the use of the enema, and all 
will shortly be well. Then this objection to the 
use of the enema will indeed be the most important 
of all. 

The eleventh objection, and the most ridiculous 

116 



Objections Answered 

of all, is that it requires too much time to take the 
enema twice or thrice daily. 

I lose all patience with persons urging this objec- 
tion. Those that have little or no system with 
their daily duties seldom have time to do anything 
of importance. They suffer from " haphazarditis," 
a very difficult disease to cure, and they are in 
many cases hopeless. Usually they are an un- 
cleanly lot of people, full of good intentions, but 
their intentions, though taken often, seldom operate 
as an antidote to foulness. Their one sigh the 
livelong day is : " Oh, could we be like birds that 
can stool while on the wing or on foot ! " This 
feat of time-saving being hardly possible in the 
present incarnation and order of society, they con- 
tent themselves with making a storehouse out of 
the intestinal canal for an indefinite length of time 
as they concern themselves with external affairs of 
work or sport. A sorry lot they are, indeed, when 
they are laid up for repairs ! Many doctors, I am 
sorry to say, encourage, with a chuckle, this foolish 
practice. " Any time to stool you can manage to 
get, so that you stool at least once a day, or once 
in every two or three days ; stool when it is normal 
for you to do so." This criminal advice just suits 
the sleepy, the lazy, or the " awfully busy." 

The American habit of doing things en masse, of 
handling things in large quantities or in bulk, has 
something to do with their don't-care constipated 
habit. Small evacuations two or three times a day 
seem too much like small business, which of course 

117 



Intestinal Irrigation 

is a waste of precious time. Wholesaling, laziness, 
lack of system, hurry, are the cause of good-for- 
nothingness of body and mind. It should never be 
too much trouble to restore the lost impulse for 
stooling twice or thrice daily. 

Is it a small matter to have the main sewer of a 
city partly or entirely closed, or the main sewer 
pipe of a dwelling stopped up ? Think of the dire 
results, notwithstanding that the windows and doors 
remain wide open ! The Board of Health would 
soon deal with the negligent official or landlord. 
With very few exceptions, " civilized " men, women, 
and children are negligent and niggardly care- 
takers of the human dwelling-place — the marvel- 
ous body of man. " Lack of time," " have n't the 
time," or " no time," is the excuse they give them- 
selves and others. 

Notwithstanding the numberless victims around 
them, none of these negligent and niggardly ones 
seem to get alarmed until the secondary symptoms 
— such as indigestion, gout, rheumatism, or disease 
of some vital organ — are sufficiently annoying to 
demand attention. But I have full faith in hu- 
manity. Man does the best he knows how — as a 
general rule. But often he does n't know how ; he 
needs enlightening. 

The hints I have given will, I am confident, be 
considered and acted upon by all to whose attention 
they are brought,*for, by acting upon them, nor- 
mal bodies and minds will result, and blessings 
attained heretofore considered impossible. Normal 

118 



Objections Answered 

health depends on right doing and being. Eternal 
vigilance is the price to be paid for the attainment 
and maintenance of the goal of normal life and pro- 
gress. Eliminate all waste material from the body 
and all shifty vermin from the mind, and the mil- 
lennium for all things in the universe will soon 
dawn. 



119 



CHAPTER XIV. 



Lame Back. 

THE manufacturers of various compounds adver- 
tised in our daily newspapers and on the bill- 
boards usually select very common ailments or 
symptoms on which to exploit the merits of their 
product. They make no distinction between a dis- 
ease and its symptoms ; and why should they, when 
their sole object is to sell their goods ? 

Lame back is a common weakness of that por- 
tion of the spine usually spoken of as the ''small 
of the back." As a general rule, it is an indication 
of some pelvic disease involving the anus, rectum, 
colon, bladder, or uterus. Those who suffer from 
disease of one or more of the pelvic organs will 
have at times reminders that they have a lame, 
weak, or " dead " spot at the " small of the back " 
or a little lower down on the spine. 

As an illustration, a current advertisement reads 
as follows : " Weak Backs! If you happen to be 
one of those unfortunate people with a weak, lame, 
tired, aching back, it is time you were finding out 

about ." Then the advertisement proceeds to 

tell how to put on a plaster or a liniment, or rub 
the back for a week or two with the hands. An- 



I20 



Lame Back 



other enterprising wonder-worker asks : " Do you 
get up with a lame back ? Thousands of women 
have kidney trouble and never suspect it." " Lifted 

from the depths of despair by " etc. Now, this 

may be seriously alarm- 



ing to actual sufferers 
from lame back. 

The kidneys are lo- 
cated several inches 
above the region called 
the ' ' small of the back " ; 
therefore, a difficulty in 
this region does not 
necessarily indicate dis- 
ease of the kidneys. 
Those who suffer from 
the symptoms de- 
scribed lame • w^ealc 

' ' Showing the distribution of the sym- 

hot, dead SpOtS, lum- pathetic nerve about the rectum. 22, 

bago, rheumatism, etc. the rectum; 23, the bladder ; 26 ' the 

kidney ; 20, the rectal plexus; 19, the 
at thlS portion of the vesicle plexus; 18, the sacral ganglia; 

Spine may SUSpeCt that 2I . the lumbar plexus; the lumbar 
c , . ganglia; 16, the mesenteric plexus; 15, 

some of the organs in the solar plexus; 27> the aorta . 
what is called the pel- 
vic cavity are causing them. The spinal nerves 
(lumbar nerves) on leaving the " small of the back" 
and proceeding lower down are distributed to the 
anus, rectum, bladder, uterus, etc., and when one 
or more of these organs are diseased the victim 
will have some of the symptoms in the portion of 
the back mentioned above. The earlier indica- 




121 



Intestinal Irrigation 

tions of a disease are usually localized, but, as the 
malady itself persists indefinitely, both the sufferer 
and his physician are often deceived as to the pro- 
ducing cause of the varying symptoms manifesting^ 
throughout the body. 

In this brief chapter I will confine myself to the 
diseases of the anus, rectum, and colon, as causing 
so much annoyance from the symptoms enumerated 
at or below the "small of the back." The most 
common ailment that afflicts mankind is chronic 
catarrhal inflammation of the anus, rectum, and 
colon. The disease invades not only the mucous 
membrane but the whole bowel structure, and the 
nerves report from the seat of the trouble up to 
where they enter the spinal column — a region that 
should be called the porous-plaster region rather 
than the " small of the back." 

The chronic inflammation involving eight to ten 
inches of the lower portion of the intestinal canal, 
like all other diseases, has its alternating periods of 
quietude and excitement ; and the negligent suf- 
ferer must count on having " stitches in the back," 
— cold in the back, lumbago, rheumatism, sciatica, 
etc., as they are usually called for want of a defi- 
nite idea as to the cause of the annoying symptoms. 
The physician consulted usually agrees with the 
sufferers diagnosis, and coincides with the applica- 
tion of bands, porous plasters, liniments, etc. — which 
may allay the neuralgic symptoms to some extent. 

The reader is so familiar with illustrations in the 
newspapers and on bill-boards of a man with a 

122 



Lame Back 

weak or lame back that it is unnecessary here to 
take up space with a pen picture descriptive of the 
symptoms and attitudes of a sufferer. 

Those who have had occasion to acquire the 
warm-band, the rubbing with liniment, and the 
plaster habits, had better direct their attention and 
remedies to the cause of the symptoms. One fre- 
quent source of all these back symptoms is chronic 
inflammation of the anus, rectum, and colon, with 
more or less ulceration accompanying it. In the 
female, disease of the uterus complicates the pain- 
ful symptoms. Usually among the first indications 
of this disease is some degree of constipation, which 
in time is followed by local symptoms known as 
piles, fissure, itching tabs, clot of blood in a vein, 
abscess, etc. Constipation is a prolific cause of 
indigestion, biliousness, flatulency, loss of appetite, 
self-poisoning, anemia, emaciation, uric acid, neur- 
algia in various parts of the system, catarrhal in- 
flammation of the mucous membrane of one or 
more organs, and many other symptoms. 

A diseased organ is a constant source of uncon- 
scious and conscious irritation to the sufferer. If 
the victim can tolerate the trouble he seldom seeks 
treatment. " I will not bother with it as long as it 
is no worse," he says. At times, however, the symp- 
toms become very annoying, and measures are 
taken to allay them. During the long interval of 
" better and worse " effects the malady is becoming 
more deeply seated, and the symptoms eventually 
appear in all parts of the body. 
123 



Intestinal Irrigation 

As a rule, the majority of victims put off treat- 
ment until a protracted period of extreme suffering 
or the fear of a fatal ending compels them to con- 
sult a physician — who labors at a great disadvan- 
tage in seeking to effect a cure on account of the 
long neglect. 

Severe symptoms located at the porous-plaster 
region of the spine, when brought on by disease of 
the lower bowel, usually indicate an acute stage of 
chronic inflammation and retention of feces and 
gases in the sigmoid flexure and colon. Acute or 
subacute inflammation and fever and pressure of 
the feces are more than the long-abused nerves can 
endure, and severe pain is the result. 

Then the sufferer has something to say about 
his back, and what is best to do for it. 

The logical course is to unload the bowels of 
feces and gases by a generous use of the enema 
* and to treat the diseased tissues kindly. The symp- 
toms will soon disappear when the cause is removed. 



124 



CHAPTER XV. 

Uric Acid. 

A SOCIETY leader, in speaking of her ills to a 
woman friend, said : " I am 'lousy' with uric 
acid." From infancy to old age, mankind is more 
or less filled with uric acid and other poisons — the 
result of a foul intestinal canal. Poisoned blood is 
a common symptom, and it arises from an almost 
universal cause — chronic constipation. So univer- 
sal is constipation of the bowels in illness that it is 
the first duty of a physician to prescribe some 
remedy to unload them. 

It is said that a Boston doctor, whose practice 
was largely among the wealthy classes, used to say : 
" There is no use in physicians pretending to be 
anything else — they always smell of rhubarb." And 
in an address to a class of medical students an old 
doctor once said that he and his associate practi- 
tioners had found that calomel and opium filled 
every want in the ills they were called upon to 
treat. 

For ages all mankind has striven to find a remedy 
effectively to clean the intestinal tract. Pills, pow- 
ders, tablets, wafers, suppositories, salts, teas, can- 
dies, and syrups have been administered — all with 

125 



Intestinal Irrigation 

that sole purpose. Efforts have been made to 
accomplish this object by utilizing every possible 
device and contrivance known to human ingenuity. 
Calisthenics, massage, physical-culture exercise, 
mental therapy, horseback riding, " dieting," fast- 
ing — these are some of the many means resorted 
to in order to ''sterilize" the foul, constipated in- 
testinal canal. 

Albeit that the cleaning of the digestive appara- 
tus in the case of a sick person is regarded as 
a necessary first help the world over, few persons 
realize that it is of equal importance in the case of 
a seemingly healthy person. Is it not a fair infer- 
ence, therefore, that where a purgative — such as 
calomel, or one of the innumerable similarly-acting 
medicines — temporarily relieves a patient's symp- 
toms, the timely precaution of keeping the intesti- 
nal canal and system clean would prevent a person 
from getting ill ? 

The reader may think that, in these observations, 
I have wandered away from my text, but, as uric 
acid is the symptom of a combination and complica- 
tion of disorders of which constipation is the sec- 
ondary cause, the connection and sequence of my 
remarks are evident. It is safe for a layman to 
assume that, where so many diverse schemes are 
employed to relieve symptoms, the diagnosis is 
wrong — also the treatment. 

A few of the many primary symptoms of procti- 
tis and colitis are constipation, diarrhea, indi- 
gestion, biliousness, flatulency, putrefaction, and 

126 



Uric Acid 

gaseous and bacterial poisons — a foul gastrointesti- 
nal canal, through which there are daily absorbed 
from the bowels two-thirds to three-fourths of the 
excrementitious matter into the system. With 
these facts before us we need not be astonished 
at the statement that nine-tenths of human ills 
have their origin in the digestive apparatus. 

Among the secondary symptoms of proctitis 
and colitis is poisoned blood — anemia, which is 
usually followed by impaired nutrition and emacia- 
tion or obesity. Along with the changes in the 
blood and nutrition there occurs lodgment or de- 
posit of salts, acids, etc., in the various organs and 
tissues of the body. Almost every one is familiar 
with gouty deposits in the finger joints and other 
joints of the body. If the deposits occur in the 
muscular tissue it is called rheumatism. If in the 
-urinary organs we have gravel, Bright's disease, 
diabetes, cystitis, irritation of the neck of the blad- 
der, frequent calls to urinate ; and the urine, scanty 
and high-colored, on cooling reveals a crystalline 
deposit. The principal mineral substances of the 
urine are as follows — of which one or more may 
become poisonous : chloride of potassium, chloride 
of calcium, chloride of magnesium, chloride of so- 
dium, sulphate of potassium, sulphate of soda, sul- 
phate of magnesia, phosphate of soda, and phosphate 
of potassium. 

The liver gets its share of the foul substances 
generated in the intestinal canal, which cause con- 
gestion of the organ. Toxic biliary salts and 

127 



Intestinal Irrigation 

acids are present. The deposit may form gall- 
stones, and jaundice and many other annoying 
symptoms may occur. The system is simply a 
filter, or blotter, that lets the poisonous contents of 
the intestinal canal pass through and out ; but all 
the organs and tissues, during the process, retain 
many of the foreign toxic substances, which over- 
tax (and frequently destroy) their functions with 
work that Nature never intended they should do. 
Think of it — all the organs and tissues around the 
intestinal canal serving as fecal vents ! Deposits 
cause irritation of nerve centers and nerve cells 
precisely as in fibrous and cartilaginous tissues ; 
and we speak of the symptoms as spinal irritation, 
hysteria, chorea, lumbago, sciatica, nervous tension, 
headache, irritability, despondency, melancholia, 
insomnia, dementia, etc. From the disturbance of 
the voluntary and involuntary nerves. we have ir- 
regular circulation of the blood from disturbed 
heart action, cold hands and feet, and flushing of 
the face alternating with pallor, vertigo, and dizzi- 
ness. The capillary circulation becomes obstructed 
with crystallized bodies, as chunks of ice obstruct a 
stream of water. 

Catarrhal inflammation of the mucous membrane 
is set up in various parts of the body by the de- 
posits in the membrane and the abnormal means 
of their elimination through it. The skin of the 
body, which is the mucous membrane turned out- 
ward, suffers likewise from diseases having numer- 
ous names. 

128 



Uric Acid 

Doctors have always expressed a poor opinion 
of the liver because it did not keep the bowels 
sweet and clean, and they mistakenly though hon- 
estly called it "the lazy liver," "the torpid liver," 
" hepatic insufficiency," " atony of the liver," " slug- 
gish liver," "hepatic torpor," " fatty liver," etc.; and 
the poor victim of proctitis and colitis was glad he 
had consulted the doctor and learned "just the 
cause " of his internal troubles — and could suffer 
on more reconciled to his malady since he knew its 
exact name and could continue to take with regu- 
larity one or more of the many powerful liver ex- 
citers, to stimulate activity in the liver and bowels 
once every day or two, if possible. By some strange 
psychological or other influence of late years, how- 
ever, physicians have turned their attention to the 
"lazy kidneys," and now it is difficult to decide 
which they are purging the most — the liver or the 
kidneys. At any rate, they both must be violently 
excited at the same time, and we hear " lithia " men- 
tioned, or " laxative salts of lithia," every time uric 
acid is thought of. Stimulate the lazy liver and 
kidneys, and with abundant salts dissolve out of the 
tissues and blood the precipitated deposits ; this is 
the fashion of the times. 

Diagnosis wrong and treatment harmful ! Water 
is by fa'r the best agent to dissolve salt com- 
pounds, to dilute acids, or to remove filth. It is also 
the best means of soothing and relieving the long 
irritated and inflamed tissues and organs, that have 
had from two-thirds to three-fourths of the daily 

I2 9 _ 9 



Intestinal Irrigation 

fecal mass thrust upon them and collected in them, 
when they are called torpid, lazy, and whipped up 
unmercifully by bile and urine bouncers. We our- 
selves would be very torpid, sluggish, or " lazy " if 
called upon to do the work of two persons under 
such embarrassing physiological circumstances as 
being filled with toxic substances, or thoroughly 
auto-intoxicated. 

When will common sense take the place of 
theories founded on guesswork, and some thorough 
washing out by plain or distilled water be done, 
internally as well as externally ? After such an 
operation some specific remedy may be taken, if 
demanded, with the certainty of permanent good 
resulting. But remember, your aqueous body, held 
in its form by the skin and mucous membrane, 
needs a well-nigh constant stream of pure water 
flowing through it to keep it fresh and clean. 

The diagnostic error of mistaking effect for cause, 
however, is frequently made. Patients are treated 
for one of the secondary symptoms — say uric acid 
— with a view to abate that disorder and restore 
health, when treatment for the specific cause of 
constipation — proctitis (inflammation of the anus 
and rectum) — would restore the patient to his nor- 
mal vigor. Pale, anemic sufferers from constipa- 
tion are often told that the restoration of their 
blood to its normal state will effect a complete 
cure. No idea could be further amiss, for if the 
poisoned victims take coal oil, fish oil, malt com- 
pounds, iron, etc., as tonics, into a disordered 

130 



Uric Acid 

stomach and unclean bowels, how can anything 
more than imaginary relief be obtained? Is it not 
evident that the chief disorder, proctitis, the main 
cause of the trouble, has in no way been reached ? 

In other complications arising from constipation, 
a favorite diagnosis is one of the secondary symp- 
toms — "atony" of the bowels, liver, or kidneys. 
In these cases nux vomica and various poisonous 
compounds are given, but here also it stands to 
reason that the administering of remedies for symp- 
toms cannot effect a cure of a chronic local disease 
of the anus, rectum, or colon. Then, again, by 
way of variety, a diagnosis of " uric acid " is made 
for which irritant drugs are administered to in- 
crease the eliminating or excretory action of the 
bowels and kidneys. It is utter folly and absurd- 
ity to attempt the cleansing of the intestinal tract 
by laxatives, cathartics, purgatives, exercise, etc., 
and to make the kidneys and liver, overtaxed 
from foul bowel products, do still more work by 
giving medicines to increase the urinal and biliary 
secretions. 

It does not require a knowledge of the principles 
of physiology and pathology to know that no suf- 
ferer from chronic constipation can be permanently 
benefited if any or all of the secondary symptoms 
already noted be treated with the usual list of drugs 
and the cause ignored. 

Much stress is laid upon the quantity and quality 
of food consumed by most people, and many gen- 
eralizes attribute chronic constipation, uric acid, 
131 



Intestinal Irrigation 

etc., to this very thing. Surely the average person 
knows that too much or too little food taken at 
regular intervals is not conducive to good health — 
a view that I have found borne out by a large 
majority of my patients, who rarely overstepped 
the limits and knew when a diminution in the 
supply of nourishment was advisable. 

In the last analysis, the principal cause of ill 
health is lack of elimination of the excretory or- 
gans. When the bowels fail to do their proper 
work, the functions of the other organs of the body 
become correspondingly affected and impaired, and 
general debility ensues. 

In previous chapters, also in my book, Intestinal 
Ills, I have made plain the causes contributing to 
chronic constipation and the use of enemas and 
their origin. Prehension and elimination are two 
subjects that are vital to the welfare of man. If 
the eliminating power of the intestinal canal is 
normally active, the fortunate individual may eat 
abundantly, or really in excess of the requirements 
of the system, and still escape any ill effects, such 
as indigestion, biliousness, acid in the urine, etc. 
The hearty consumer of food whose bowels elimi- 
nate properly may suffer a loss of appetite, but it 
will not be accompanied with foulness of the diges- 
tive apparatus. 

When all the organs of the body perform their 
functions in a normal manner, no part of the struc- 
ture is in immediate need of repair. Every organ 
whose function consists in building tissues, muscles, 

132 



Uric Acid 

or some other part of the body, Having a sufficient 
supply of reserve nutriment on hand, makes known 
this state throughout the organism ; hence there 
is no craving for food, no appetite, although the 
tongue, stomach, and intestines are in a normal 
condition. In this state of surplus of nourishment 
the person may omit a few meals or partake spar- 
ingly until the expenditure is equal to the income. 
But such physiological happiness is not for the per- 
son whose intestinal canal and system are clogged 
and foul from undue retention of excrementitious 
material, causing no desire for food, while all the 
atomic builders of the body are wanting nourish- 
ment and protesting through the nervous system 
against their impoverished condition. 

Sufferers from self-poisoning, as described in this 
chapter, should irrigate the system thoroughly by 
frequent drinking and by copious injections of 
water into the bowels. The action of the enema 
if properly given and the drinking of water that 
is pure or distilled increase the quantity of urine 
and diminish the renal congestion, while increasing 
the eliminative action of the skin. 

Irrigation of the bowels for twenty minutes or 
more with tepid water (98 to 100 degrees) increases 
the action of the kidneys. Hot irrigation (no to 
125 degrees) is especially recommended to increase 
the discharge of urine and the action of the skin, 
and should be continued for thirty minutes or more. 
The Intestinal Recurrent Douche, described in a 
subsequent chapter, is an excellent instrument for 

133 



Intestinal Irrigation 

the employment *bf hot water to produce diuresis 
and diaphoresis. 

The Chemung Spring Water and Clynta Double- 
Distilled Water, sold in New York, are excellent 
drinking waters and can be obtained at a moderate 
price. 



134 






CHAPTER XVI. 

Rational Sanitation and Hygiene. 

WE, all of us, like to use things ; indulgence is 
enjoyable, but it generally ends with the 
day. Few of us "take thought of the morrow." 
Neglecting, as we do, the instruments of use, their 
availability for permanent subservience to our 
wants steadily diminishes, becoming finally lost. 
Is it that we do not know any better, or is it that 
we are really so intoxicated with the Present that we 
simply ignore the well-known claims of the Perma- 
nent ? Whatever the explanation may be, it is 
nevertheless passing strange that little or no care 
is bestowed on either our external or internal servi- 
tors, instruments, or organs, which otherwise are 
ever ready to keep us well filled with the pure wine 
of joy. Perhaps it is that many of us find Nature 
so lavish in supplying us with the means of joy that 
we are naturally equally lavish in wasting them. 
True economy — that is, the conserving of means 
for their effective use — is yet to be learned by man. 
Especially is this the case with our interior means, 
our flesh, blood, nerves, vital force, etc. Nature 
seems so ready to recoup and renew the organic 
loss incurred by our use or indulgence — recupera- 

135 



Intestinal Irrigation 

tion seems so easy — that we simply grow careless, 
reckless, prodigal, and before we are fairly aware 
of it the disintegrative process gains an ascendency 
over the restorative, and thenceforward our time 
will be spent in endeavoring to cure what might 
have been kept whole or well. 

Nor is it an organ of the body here and there 
that we neglect or abuse ; it is more especially the 
entire system of organs called " the body." The 
body is the organ of man's spirit. We give no 
heed to its tones ; perhaps we have never caught 
its rhythm ; certain it is that when but a short time 
in our perverted hands its chords are more or less 
jangled, and a minor part is played in the grand 
symphony of life. 

The organ of man's spirit ! How rational, nay, 
how necessary, it would seem to be to keep that 
instrument keyed to its perfect work ! 

But the ordinary denizen of civilization has a 
most ridiculous ideal of physical capability, namely, 
that the savage — a being altogether "physical " — 
was able to retain a healthy body till ripe old age 
without attention either to sanitary surroundings 
or to the hygienic functioning of his system of or- 
gans. The " civilizee's " fancy picture of the noble 
savage is not based upon verifiable fact. It is true 
that we have a few attractive myths concerning 
savages that had survived appalling hardship ; but 
we are just learning of the innumerable host that 
have perished periodically of various contagious 
diseases, and of the countless number (infants, 

136 



Rational Sanitation and Hygiene 

youths, and adults) that have suffered from all 
sorts of ailments. Alas! how little we know — 
or, for that matter, how little we seem to care — of 
the great multitude of " civilized " fellow-creatures 
whose lives are all jangled and out of tune through 
subjection to the many ills that flesh seems heir to ; 
ills that have arisen through either ignorance or 
the voluntary ignoring of the light of accessible 
knowledge / 

In another aspect the human race is like an army 
that concerns itself with its immediate and impera- 
tive duties and has no time or thought to bestow 
on those that fall out of the ranks. But slaves to 
stern duty offend against Nature's normality as do 
slaves to desire ; and the former little suspect that 
their retirement also is near at hand. In health we 
seldom or never think of the conditions for the 
maintenance of health. That these conditions 
should receive our prime attention is obvious when 
we contemplate for a moment (i) our race of inva- 
lids, and (2) the growing unsanitary condition of 
modern industrialism, involving, as industrialism 
perforce must, the unsanitary life of the factory, 
workshop, office, and hothouse home. 

Again, with the advance of high-pressure civiliza- 
tion and culture human beings are developing a 
more highly sensitive physical organism, pitched 
to finer issues. How urgent the necessity for a 
greater safeguarding of that organism ! 

If it be claimed that many of us do live up to 
our knowledge of health conditions, and that we 

137 



Intestinal Irrigation 

are notwithstanding unwell, I would answer that our 
knowledge now is very disconnected, and that when 
the time shall come that our itemistic information 
shall have coalesced and formed a system of princi- 
ples, we will then have trustworthy rules for the 
acquisition of health habits and become completely 
normal physical beings. At present most of us are 
intemperate in one or more ways. We eat too 
much or too little — too rich or too poor food. So 
it is with our drinking, our sleeping, our sporting, 
our enjoyment of this or that excitement — the 
quantity or the quality of each of these is not 
well adapted or proportioned to the conditions of 
normality. 

Let me offer the health-seeker a few indications 
of the sanitary and hygienic requirements demanded 
by Nature's normality. In our family and house- 
hold life, to carry into execution daily hygienic 
measures, it is essential that we have ample, access- 
ible conveniences for the necessary ablution of the 
body, externally and internally. How extremely 
rare it is, however, that bath-tubs and water-closets 
are found in sufficient quantity and suitable quality 
in our apartments. As household fixtures they are 
usually about as scarce as hens' teeth. 

In New York City a house with from eight to 
sixteen persons is restricted to the use of one water- 
closet and one bath-tub. On these (and a laundry 
and servants privy in the basement) there is the 
tax of ten dollars a year. Now, should that rare 
human product, an enlightened and humane owner, 

133 



Rational Sanitation and Hygiene 

put in eight more bath-tubs and water-closets for 
the proper accommodation of his sixteen guests, so 
that each suite of sleeping apartments should have 
its appropriate conveniences, he would have to pay 
an additional tax of forty dollars a year. Is this 
tax levied with the connivance of the Board of 
Health ? It would seem so, since no protest from 
that august body has ever been heard within the 
memory of the oldest inhabitant. Indeed, the sus- 
picion is not at all unwarranted that if the masses 
were less constipated and better washed they would 
have less use for the doctors, and that, therefore, 
it is not well to encourage undue sanitation and 
hygiene. 

It must be, too, that the Department of Water 
Supply has figured it out quite beautifully that a 
saving will be insured in the amount of water con- 
sumed by sixteen persons if they be restricted to 
one bath-tub and one water-closet ; otherwise forty 
dollars a year would not be charged for eight ad- 
ditional tubs and closets for the use of the same 
number of persons. Listen to a sample of their 
logic : " Sixteen persons with eight additional bath- 
tubs and water-closets would use more water than 
if they were restricted to one of each — hence 
the additional tax. We don't care a continental 
whether these human beings are clean externally 
or internally ; that 's not our lookout. But we do 
care that they should n't use more water than just 
so much, see ! " 

And does the august Board of Health raise the 

139 



Intestinal Irrigation 

least objection to this sort of logic ? None what- 
ever. 

Professor C. S. Smith states that, out of 255,000 
families in tenement-houses in the city of New- 
York, only 306 had access to bath-tubs in their own 
homes in 1894. In 1897 one city block containing 
904 families did not have a single bath-tub. 

Paradoxical as it may seem, there is, notwithstand- 
ing the appropriation every year for the New York 
City Board of Health of over one million dollars, a 
prohibitive tax on bath-tubs and water-closets — that 
is, on cleanliness — prohibitive on all homes except 
those of the wealthy. Is it to be wondered at that 
contagious diseases are prevalent, especially during 
the winter months, and that we have so many acute 
and chronic maladies ? 

Let me make a suggestion here for the serious 
consideration of our city fathers : Reduce the ap- 
propriation for the Board of Health to two hundred 
thousand and give the other eight hundred thou- 
sand to the Department of Water Supply, so as to 
abolish the tax on water-closets and bath-tubs. If 
every citizen of New York could have all the water 
he needed for cleanliness and comfort, there would 
be little excuse for the existence of such a body as 
the Board of Health ; its existence would then be 
more honorable than onerous. Furthermore, the 
city, as a corporate body, should manufacture bath- 
tubs and water-closets, and furnish them at cost. 
Thus would it insure a great stride toward the 
health of its own citizens. When the disease-pro- 

140 



Rational Sanitation and Hygiene 

ducing microbe becomes scarce, the occupation of 
the Health Board pathologist will be gone. Hold ! 
Could he not devote his time profitably to studying 
the habits of health-producing microbes — for there 
are such ? Microbes are absolutely necessary for 
higher forms of existence, it being now well known 
that some microbes are destructive or pathological 
and that others are constructive or physiological. 
Is it not much wiser to spend our millions of dol- 
lars for the prevention of disease than for quaran- 
tining it? Inducing, and even compelling, people 
to be clean is a far better policy than to compel 
them to be vaccinated. 

Now, we pay the Board of Health many thou- 
sands of dollars a year simply for making cultures 
of disease-producing bacteria so that antidotes may 
be found. The pictures and history of these bac- 
teria are published in many large volumes, costing 
the city several hundred thousand dollars a year. 
Scientific as this practice undoubtedly is, it is very 
expensive — and needless. 

Every year thousands of children and invalids of 
New York receive improper nourishment, or are 
made positively sick, on milk that is either foul, 
stale, or ready to sour ; and every summer thou- 
sands of children die from complaints traceable to 
this source. Swill milk is one of the great genera- 
tors of disease-producing germs to which all sorts 
of " complaints " are due. Does the Board of 
Health care a fig for the generator? No; the 
Board is absorbed in watching the antics of the 
141 



Intestinal Irrigation 

germs ! Mighty intellects are searching for malig- 
nant, multitudinous mites. Yet there are just a 
few mites of common sense in existence, which if 
encouraged will breed quite as fast as the sinister 
ones. Indeed, there must be one or two at work 
in myself, for I seem to be urged to say that if our 
City and State Boards of Health should see to it 
that our cows are kept clean and healthy, our milk 
clean and pure, our cans clean and well scoured, 
and our shops and ice-boxes clean and free from 
odor, there would be no occasion for germ cultures 
of diseases brought on by swill milk. 

Our milk example will illustrate what germs of 
common sense would do to ward off all kinds 
of disease-producing micro-organisms. Rigorous 
regulations, well enforced, as indicated above, would 
work in other lines as well. And when the source 
is gone sinister microbes will not come into exist- 
ence, and diseases that have resulted from such 
microbes will have gone into innocuous desuetude. 

There should be a bath-tub and a water-closet in 
every suite of sleeping apartments. When this is 
the case, there will be a larger number of persons 
clean internally and externally, and the doctors 
will be on a hunt for health-producing germs in- 
stead of disease-producing ones. Let us start an 
organized movement in this direction. 

Last summer Medical Science went about killing 
mosquitoes on Staten Island with a little spraying 
apparatus, and managed to disturb the pest for a 
day or two from its customary bivouac. Christian 

142 



Rational Sanitation and Hygiene 

Science stood aloof and smiled superciliously, claim- 
ing that " there are n't any such things as mosqui- 
toes ; but if they should prove to exist, there is n't 
any malaria anyhow." Good sense might have 
suggested to Medicus the draining of the ponds for 
gardening purposes ; and, if that were not possible, 
the filling in of the edges and the making of deep- 
water lakes for the sport-loving youth, who might 
be depended on to keep the water stirred up by 
boating, etc., free of charge, and thus convert a 
pest pond into a pleasure lake. Pleasure and 
cleanliness are taxed to-day for disease and pests. 
Oh, human imbecility ! 

As to public baths, there are so many objections 
to them that I cannot touch on the subject in this 
chapter. But let me impress upon the health- 
seeker, the public-spirited citizen, and our city 
officials that what we urgently need are ample 
conveniences in our homes for internal and exter- 
nal cleanliness — conveniences easily accessible sev- 
eral times a day, every day of the year. 



143 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Personal Cleanliness. 



AT the close of my last chapter I referred to the 
ever-recurring problem of public baths. An- 
nually its agitation is renewed in lectures and 
newspapers ; public bathing is voted without dis- 
agreement the thing of things needful to render the 
laity — i. e., the labor population — physically pure. 
It is the long-felt want ; but, like the longed-for 
walk of the annual Sunday-school parade, it is soon 
done and gone. Still, we must have patience with 
those dear souls, our ethical teachers of the press 
and platform, for taking such a deep, sentimental, 
though unscientific, interest in the welfare of the 
unclean. Owing to the non-existence of home 
facilities for cleanliness among the working class, 
the accumulations of soil and exudation during the 
long fall, winter, and spring months are so great 
that their bodies become too rank and malodorous 
for the nostrils of the refined. Consequently, as all 
animals seek the tepid water of the summer, and as 
man is no exception to a capacity for laving in the 
circumambient fluid, to three-fourths of the popula- 
tion of this metropolis it must be a glorious peren- 
nial treat to dip in the river, bay, or sea ; and it 



144 



Personal Cleanliness 

must indeed be a dire necessity to those that have 
managed to survive contagious and other diseases 
during their long immurement. Without this sum- 
mer cleansing few animals, bestial or human, would 
run half their average careers. It is accordingly 
not strange that during the summer a bath in open 
water is a daily hygienic necessity and source of 
joy to thousands of creatures. 

Now, it is just because godliness appears in the 
wake of cleanliness that I made so strong a plea in 
my last chapter for ample bath-tubs and water- 
closets. For I do not approve, nay, I emphatically 
condemn, the system of public baths along the 
shores of our rivers and bay. Their waters are 
contaminated by numerous sewers, and bathers 
have contracted many contagious diseases that have 
become epidemic in neighborhoods. Note espe- 
cially the annoying eye troubles that follow in the 
wake of such bathing. Of course, the sport and 
exercise involved in open-water bathing are highly 
commendable ; but the danger of contracting con- 
tagious disease, and the outrage of the sense of 
refinement when contemplating fellow-creatures 
in the act of stirring up polluted waters, should 
call a halt to our encouragement of public bath- 
ing in and around our metropolitan water fronts. 
These waters are surely anything but a means of 
cleanliness. 

The water-closet, however, is of far greater im- 
portance than the bath-tub, and especially than the 
public water-gymnasium — which last is so much 

145-10 



Intestinal Irrigation 

lauded by some of our misguided philanthropists. 
Intestinal foulness, as a prolific source of disease, is 
of far more serious importance than surface foulness. 
However, both the bath-tub and the water-closet 
are indispensable to every suite of rooms. 

Another need imperatively demanded by the exi- 
gencies of city life is the establishment of public 
water-closets at several thousand convenient cen- 
ters throughout this great city. At present the 
male population, when away from their residences, 
are obliged to make use of a near-by saloon — a 
most uncertain resort, and one in which courtesy 
will generally constrain them to imbibe intoxicants 
nolens volens. The female population have not 
even the saloon as a resort, and can relieve them- 
selves only when in the vicinity of department 
stores. American enterprise can improve in many 
respects on the several European models of pub- 
lic-relief stations. The public is becoming con- 
scious of its needs and rights in this respect ; and 
one of the sanitary evolutions of city life — con- 
gested as it is — will be ample and cleanly public 
accommodations for intestinal relief. 

Americans in general suffer from dyspepsia, bil- 
iousness, constipation, uric acid, etc. — all of which 
disorders are symptoms of that world-wide disease, 
proctitis : inflammation of the anus, rectum, and 
often the colon. Nor is it any wonder that un- 
washed humanity suffers from proctitis and its con- 
sequences. The unwashed have no bath-tubs and 
practically no water-closets. This lack is due to 

146 



Personal Cleanliness 

the tax on water facilities, to expensive plumbing, 
and to too much " science " and not enough com- 
mon sense among our city fathers. As a conse- 
quence of ignorance and inconvenience, most people 
defecate but once in twenty-four hours ; and very 
many but once in two or three days or a week. 
The once-a-day stool is frequently scanty, and as a 
consequence the kidneys, lungs, and skin are called 
upon to perform the vicarious function of elimin- 
ating a portion of the daily excrement ; and the 
colon and sigmoid flexure have to hold the stored 
contents unduly — until the feces be expelled by 
purgatives or by the irritation that the accumu- 
lated mass occasions. Could the members of the 
Board of Health and the people at large be brought 
to a realizing sense of the value of personal clean- 
liness, — internal as well as external, — bath-tubs and 
water-closets would abound in our homes. 

Man's habits as to eating, drinking, dressing, 
bathing, and especially as to defecating, are clues 
to his growth in refinement. But we must beware 
of judging a person by one or two good or bad 
habits ; he should be estimated by the sum of 
his habits and their peculiar combination. Refined 
habits are not all of them acquired at once ; they 
develop slowly, one after another, when opportuni- 
ties are favorable, especially the habits as to bath- 
ing and defecating. Opportunities for these latter 
are wofully lacking at present — the cause and con- 
sequences of which lack are pointed out in the last 
chapter. A child will derive far more good from a 

147 



Intestinal Irrigation 

ready access to bath-tub and water-closet than from 
a lifelong attendance at Sunday-school and church 
with the temple of the human soul permanently 
unclean. Only one that has learned to respect 
and care for the abode of the soul — the body — is 
worthy of being classed among the refined. It is 
truly deplorable that the great majority of the hu- 
man race are creatures of the moment or the hour, 
tolerators of abnormal functioning, slow suicides of 
vital capacities. Claims of the permanent are con- 
stantly ignored ; most of us are blind to the joy in- 
volved in the harmonious functioning of all the 
organs — a functioning that always ensues upon 
hygienic care. 

Our organs will for a time bear neglect or un- 
hygienic conditions without protesting their annoy- 
ance. Many persons never use hot water or soap ; 
others find one bath, in river or sea, quite sufficient 
for the year ; others, again, feel the need of a bath 
once or even twice a month, or even once a week. 
But there are very few of us that seem to require a 
bath daily. Many, alas ! have grown accustomed 
to a bathless existence. 

Have you ever stood near an Italian or Greek 
street vender, or have you ever been within five 
feet of a low-class Polish Jew? If so, the stench 
arising from his unwashed body must have nau- 
seated you. It is no secret that such persons never 
wash — especially the latter, who live in rooms reek- 
ing with filth. Contemplating such conditions, I 
feel impelled to propose a great, nay, the greatest 

148 



Personal Cleanliness 

reform — one suggested years ago by Samuel Butler 
in Erewhon. Let us make Health the great civic 
virtue, and Disease, as well as unsanitary and 
unhygienic conditions, the crime. Our so-called 
crimes of theft, murder, forgery, etc., should be 
treated as weaknesses and faults to be corrected by 
Moral Rectifiers — by the preachers, priests, rabbis, 
and ethical culturists. Consider how much is im- 
plied in developing and breeding a race of healthy 
men and women. All relations of life would feel 
the vital change at once, and moral weaknesses 
would disappear. Any human cesspool entering a 
public conveyance, or in any way mingling with 
cleanly people, should be arrested, thoroughly 
cleansed, internally and externally, and seques- 
tered for a time sufficient to teach him better. 
There is a local rule of the Board of Health against 
spitting, but it is rarely enforced. There are mil- 
lions of public expectorations to one arrest. For 
the appearance in public of consumptives, and their 
offensive hawking, coughing, and spitting, no one 
seems to have suggested a remedy. All diseases 
should be classified as to grades of punishment ; 
and all moral weaknesses, such as defalcations, 
adultery, burglary, should be treated at the various 
hospitals, which latter should be conducted solely 
by Moral Rectifiers. 

In closing, I shall direct attention to a few othei 
points in personal cleanliness — the mouth, ear, nose, 
and throat. 

It is important on hygienic grounds that the 
149 



Intestinal Irrigation 

mouth receive proper care two or three times 
daily. 

The ear is commonly kept clean ; still there are 
many instances of non-refinement of this organ, 
and from its non-hygienic treatment deafness often 
occurs. 

The prevalent nasty, ill-bred habit of hawking 
and spitting in public, or in company, even by gen- 
teel persons, can be cured best by early training in 
correct habits. This habit, as well as the evidences 
of throat troubles, is usually to be ascribed to in- 
attention to the nose. When catarrhal conditions 
are avoided or properly treated the throat will not 
be so affected as to necessitate this reprehensible 
practice. Trouble is invited for the tonsils and 
soft palate by our constant hawking ; certainly the 
tender sensibility of the throat is destroyed thereby. 
Inasmuch as the tobacco habit is so general, and spit- 
ting is a necessary accompaniment of that habit, 
stringent laws against hawking and spitting would 
be unpopular among the masculine half of the race. 
But should public opinion ever become educated 
up to the point in which disease becomes a crime, 
opposition would cease. This consummation is 
devoutly to be wished, for then we will have 
adopted and followed Ingersoll's injunction to 
" make health catching, not disease." 



150 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Hot Water in the Treatment of Proctitis 

and Colitis. 

IN treating chronic ulcerative inflammation of the 
anus, rectum, sigmoid flexure, etc., it is well 
to take advantage of every really practical device 
to which one may have access, so that valuable 
time may be saved in obtaining relief and effecting 
a cure. 

The capillaries, veins, arteries, and arterioles in 
an inflamed organ become distended and the tis- 
sues swollen, indurated, and tense by the excess of 
blood and the inflammatory serum deposited in 
the tissues. The vasomotor nerves in the diseased 
part have lost their contractile power, which fact 
increases the stasis, or congestion, of the blood. 
Circulation in diseased tissue depends very much 
on the general tone of the system, and if the cir- 
culation is below the normal the ravage of the 
malady is increased proportionally. 

Have you ever observed a little stream of water 
enter a large pond in which were grass, shrubbery, 
logs, decaying vegetation, and debris of all sorts — 
the accumulation of years ? And have you noticed 
that here and there there were stagnant pools, 

151 



Intestinal Irrigation 

without a perceptible motion from where you 
stood, but that as you reached the side opposite to 
the entrance some faint traces of motion became 
visible, and that as you followed the line it soon 
formed into a stream quite equal to the inflow ? 
The pure water, on entering and mingling with the 
stagnant water and old deposits, soon becomes 
corrupted and foul. Somewhat similar unhygienic 
and toxic results take place in ponds of stagnant 
blood and abnormal deposits such as proctitis and 
colitis involve, and where, for six or eight inches 
or more of the large intestine, inflammation is 
deeply seated, and blood stasis is of course in full 
swing. As the debris in a stagnant pond decays, 
making the water impure, so in an inflamed organ 
the tissues decay, making the blood impure. Ul- 
ceration is an exhibition of this process of conges- 
tion, induration, and decay. 

The rectum and sigmoid flexure are loosely 
hung in the pelvic space and are surrounded by 
fatty cushions of connective tissue on all sides, 
which fact allows the organ considerable dilatation 
and motion (Fig. 5). Owing to the anatomical 
structure and the location of the lower bowel, it 
becomes a serious matter when it is invaded by an 
ulcerative inflammatory process — especially when 
all the layers of tissue forming its wall are invaded, 
and still more so when the connective tissue around 
the organ is in the same condition. 

Far better were it for the victim of proctitis 
and periproctitis — filled as he is with channels and 

152 



Hot Water in Proctitis and Colitis 

reservoirs — if pus were to form in abundance at 
once and thus betray the destructive action in the 
spongy areolar or connective tissue, under the mu- 
cous membrane, around the rectum, and in the 
tissue forming the anus and buttocks. 

The pathological condition brought about by in- 
flammation, etc., requires a remedy that will empty 
the over-dilated vessels and remove the serum de- 
posit in the tissues, which is analogous to the 
rubbish of a pond. 

Our grandmothers were familiar with the thera- 
peutic effects of heat and moisture when they 
applied hot poultices constantly to an inflamed 
organ or limb for one or more hours until the 
tissues presented a blanched, shriveled, and white 
appearance ; if there were signs of the inflamma- 
tion returning, the poulticing was continued or 
repeated. They knew very well what the parboiled 
condition of a washerwoman's hands indicated after 
a day's work in hot water. They were bloodless, 
notwithstanding their incessant muscular exercise. 
In case of inflammation, they reasoned, heat and 
moisture would make the congestion and fever 
leave if applied long enough. On beginning the 
use of the hot poultice, the tissues to which its 
heat and moisture were applied became relaxed, 
and the parts for the time more congested than 
before ; but our grandmothers did not mind that, 
as the final result would justify their hydriatic pro- 
cedure. They well knew that after ten minutes or 
more a reverse action would take place, and if the 

153 



Intestinal Irrigation 

treatment were continued long enough the blood- 
vessels and tissues would show little or no evidence 
of fever or inflammation. 

Where chronic inflammation exists, the blood- 
vessels and tissues lose their normal tone or 
vitality ; consequently, they will require repeated 
application of hot water as well as other aids until 
a cure shall have been effected. 

Another great advantage in the use of hot water 
is that its application can be interrupted and re- 
sumed without detriment to the diseased tissues or 
organs. Cold water, on the contrary, causes the 
vessels quickly to contract and expel the blood, 
but, on reaction taking place, the tissues become 
more congested than before. 

In the use of water at a temperature of no to 
125 degrees, or even more, we have one of the 
most valuable adjuvants in all stages of proctitis 
and colitis, and, if a properly regulated plan be 
pursued in connection with the requisite local treat- 
ment, more good can thus be accomplished than by 
all other means combined. 

The layman is more or less familiar with the 
condition of a sore or ulcer in which soft, spongy, 
or fungous tissues appear, called " proud flesh," 
which, on an inflamed mucous membrane, is called 
granular tissue. Were it not for the usual presence 
of granular tissue on a chronically inflamed mucous 
membrane and for ulcerated sections or patches, 
channels, and stretched or pouched mucous mem- 
brane called piles, the proper use of hot water 

154 



Hot Water in Proctitis and Colitis 

alone would in time effect a total cure in almost 
every case of proctitis. 

Many well-meaning persons conceive the idea 
that, if hot water is so beneficial, they may use it 
as hot as possible for the purpose of an enema 
likewise, since they will thereby not only relieve 
the bowels of their stored feces but simultaneously 
do the inflamed tissues "a whole lot of good." 
Their spirit is admirable, for not all patients are 
prompted to such thoughtful attempts to do every- 
thing in their power to get well — even though they 
err with the best intentions at heart. Let them 
remember, however, that the first effect of hot 
water is to increase the blood supply in the tissues 
if it be applied for a short time only. In the ma- 
jority of cases, the enema does not require more 
than from five to ten minutes ; hence, only harm 
can result if really hot water be used. Now and 
then a person will become possessed with the notion 
that a hot enema should be followed by a cold 
one, to bring " tone " to the lower bowels. But 
in all these misdirected efforts matters are made 
doubly worse. 

Cold water will allay fever and inflammation, but 
when its use is once begun it should be continued 
without intermission until a cure is effected. For 
this reason it is not suitable where chronic inflam- 
mation exists — especially on the mucous membrane 
of the bowels. It is, however, excellent for acute 
inflammation of the external parts of the body, 
such as the hands, arms, legs, etc., where it can be 

155 



Intestinal Irrigation 



continued without interruption for one, two, or 
three days if necessary. 

In beginning the treatment for 
constipation, there are a few cases 
in which the patient has to fuss an 
hour or more with the enema be- 
fore he can obtain any sort of 2 
proper fecal evacuation with the 
imperfect appliance at hand. In 
such cases time would be saved, 
perhaps, by combining the pro- 
cedure for an enema with that 
for a recurrent douche, which in- 
volves a continuous application of 
hot water for from forty minutes 
to an hour. In some cases it is 
well also to save time by inciden- 
tally evacuating the bowels as you 
poultice, bleach, or scald the con- 
gested, inflamed surface. 

The accompanying cuts illustrate 

a successful device for applying hot 

water and antiseptic and healing 

remedies to the anus, rectum, and 

colon. This apparatus can be used 

while sitting on a water-closet seat ; 

and the treatment can 

be completed without 

changing the position or 

removing the instrument 

(Patented Dec. 31, iqoi.) during the prOCCSS. 

Fig. 21. 

156 




Hot Water in Proctitis and Colitis 

The instrument can be attached to the proper 
source of hot-water supply by a soft-rubber tube. 
In the cone-shaped piece of hard rubber is a hard- 
rubber stop-cock, and by pressing the shut-off at 
the end of the handle sideways the stop-cock in the 
cone-shaped anal support is closed to permit the 
water to enter the rectum through the anal point 
attached to the cone-shaped external anal sup- 
porter. 

When sufficient hot water has entered the bow- 
els and has remained a few minutes, by turning 
back the shut-off at the end of the handle, as may 
be observed in Fig. 21, the injected water will 
escape from the rectum. Thus, by the reverse 
movements sideways and back again, water is per- 
mitted to enter the bowels and to return at the 
will of the operator without annoyance to the anal 
and rectal tissues. 

The hot-water treatment can be accomplished, 
as a rule, without moving the anal point. Anal 
points are of two sizes. The large one (Fig. 20) 
requires a plug to be introduced through its cone- 
shaped external anal support, to make its introduc- 
tion into the rectum easy, after which the plug is 
withdrawn and the hot-water treatment begun. 

The bore of the anal points, especially of the 
large one, cannot readily become clogged by the 
presence of feces, mucus, or membranous shreds 
or casts, which are usually brought away by the 
hot-water treatment. At no time during the pro- 
cess are the points stopped up, the size being 

157 



Intestinal Irrigation 

sufficient to insure a proper inflow as well as out- 
flow. The instrument is easily cleansed. 

Fig. 22 illustrates a medicine receptacle, which 
can be attached to the Recurrent-Douche appli- 




FlG. 22. 

I, hot-water connection ; 2, screw cap of medicine tank ; 3, soft-rubber 
tube, connecting with Recurrent Douche. 

ance by soft-rubber connection whenever desired. 
It is a convenient receptacle for depurant oils, 
liquids, and powders, which mix with the water and 
are carried into the inflamed bowels during the 
hot-water treatment by the Recurrent Douche. 
We are thus enabled to treat, by double medication 
as it were, a long-diseased intestine — an intestine 

158 



Hot Water in Proctitis and Colitis 

that has been neglected or maltreated through lack 
of proper diagnosis, or by all sorts of chemical 
compounds from above : by way of the mouth and 
stomach. 

This Intestinal Recurrent Douche appliance is a 
unique device, corresponding in that respect to the 
Internal Fountain Bath. Both these instruments 
have passed the experimental stage. They have 
recently received many modifications here and there 
to adapt them to specific uses. The author and 
inventor naturally enjoys not a little satisfaction in 
being able to present to sufferers about as perfect 
an instrument of either kind as can be desired — 
one that, in conjunction with other aids, meets all 
the requirements involved in the proper treatment 
of proctitis and colitis. 



159 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Hot Water in the Treatment of External 

Symptoms. 

AFTER proctitis has continued for many years 
it will give rise to painful inflammatory and 
ulcerative processes at the external anal vent and 
in the adjoining tissues. The anal mucous mem- 
brane and the integument about the anus become 
brittle, loosened, and detached from the areolar 
connective tissue by the retention of inflammatory 
serum. The engorged, indurated, and swollen 
mucous membrane and integument serve as reser- 
voirs, especially when the chronic inflammation is 
excited to an acute stage, which stage is often ac- 
companied by a fissure, abscess, or anal ulcer. 
Soreness and pain in the parts may then be so 
severe that the sufferer is compelled to stay indoors 
or in bed. Whatever the symptoms may be — piles, 
fissure, pruritus, abscess, or fistula — the sufferer 
desires to reduce the local fever and the acute 
inflammation, as well as to find relief from the pain. 
The customary treatment is to use poultices, which 
are troublesome and ineffective. 

In the following illustration I give a good idea 
of a perfect device for relieving quickly the sore- 

160 



Hot- Water Treatment 

ness, pain, acute inflammation, and induration, all 
of which are so very prostrating ; and, situated as 
they are physiologically, they are exceedingly incon- 
venient to treat properly by the ordinary methods 
in use : 




(Patented November 8, i8q2.) 

Fig. 23. 

The Sitz-bath pan, though small, is yet of suffi- 
cient depth and diameter for all practical purposes, 
and can be placed wherever is most convenient — on 
a low chair or a box. The bather should sit on the 
instrument with the limbs on either side of the 
funnel through which the hot water enters the pan. 
Just below the funnel is an overflow tube, under 
which a vessel should be placed to catch the water 
as it flows out. While sitting on the pan the 
elbows may rest on any convenient support, so as 
not to tire the invalid too much during the bath, 
which should consume from half an hour to an 
hour, or longer if agreeable. Hot water may be 
added every few minutes as the bather finds that 
the tissues will tolerate it. Depurant powder may 
also be added to the water in the Sitz-bath pan. 
161— 11 



Intestinal Irrigation 

What has been said in a previous chapter on the 
therapeutic effects of hot water in the treatment of 
proctitis need not be repeated here. 

The three indispensable appliances for combat- 
ing and effectually overcoming the pathological 
conditions to which this book and my two previous 
books — Intestinal Ills and How to Become Strong — 
are devoted, are The Internal Fountain Bath, The 
Intestinal Recurrent Douche, and The Shallow Sitz- 
bath Pan. These appliances are well-nigh perfect 
for the uses to which they are adapted. 



162 



CHAPTER XX. 

Antiseptic Employment of Powders and Oils, 
depurant powder. 

WATER at a temperature of from 1 10 to 125 or 
more degrees is an excellent antiseptic if prop- 
erly applied to diseased tissue. Its anti-toxic, sooth- 
ing, and healing properties, however, can be vastly 
increased by the addition of Depurant remedies. 
Water of this temperature, if used in the treatment 
of proctitis or colitis, should be applied with the aid 
of an Intestinal Recurrent Douche. 

Water at a temperature of from 90 to 105 de- 
grees — which is recommended for taking an enema 
— is antiseptic or depuratory only to the extent to 
which it washes away morbid matter from the intes- 
tinal canal. To increase its antiseptic and thera- 
peutic value, as well as to meet other requirements, 
Depurant remedies are administered with the water 
during the flushing of the large intestine. 

The Depurant Powder, prepared by the author, 
readily dissolves in the warm water and is brought 
into contact with every part of the mucous mem- 
brane as far as the antiseptic flushing extends 
along the intestine, thus leaving the washed and 
163 



Intestinal Irrigation 

sterilized canal sweet and clean — a fit and proper 
channel and receptacle for the on-coming fecal mass. 
Here it may remain about four hours without dan- 
ger of putrefaction, whereas, were the passage-way 
and receptacle foul, the feces would putrefy and 
form gases and toxic material in briefer time. 

This Depurant remedy is not restricted to intes- 
tinal uses ; it is equally efficacious when applied to 
the mucous membrane of any part of the body or 
to the skin. It may be used effectively for washing 
out the bladder or the vagina ; for syringing the 
ear ; for a mouth wash, tooth wash, gargle, nasal 
douching or spray ; for a throat spray ; for bathing 
infants ; and for internal use where foulness of the 
stomach and small intestines exists. It is also a 
valuable adjuvant in the use of water for cleansing, 
or for hygienic purposes, on all the tissues of the 
body. 

DEPURANT OIL. 

Next to the use of water on the mucous mem- 
brane and skin as a hygienic and therapeutic agent, 
I am partial to some of our delightful oils, which 
are bland, non-irritating, and of a pleasing, nour- 
ishing, refreshing effect and exquisite odor. 

To the oil selected as the base ingredient may 
be added other oils, and finally attenuated powdered 
substances of therapeutic value in soothing, purify- 
ing, healing, or any other purpose the case may call 
for. Pure olive oil is an excellent substance in which 
to incorporate Depurant remedies, especially when 

164 






Employment of Powders and Oils 

designed to be taken internally, by way of the 
mouth, or applied to the integument of the body. 
Certain other oils are equally pleasing though 
rather expensive.. However, an inexpensive oil 
usually serves as a base in which to embody the 
proper medicinal remedies for Depurant purposes 
in the treatment of proctitis and colitis. 

By a proper instrument the oil is carried into the 
intestines with the water used in flushing the colon, 
or that used with the intestinal recurrent douche 
treatment. The oil, being lighter than the water, 
is carried ahead or on top as the water passes up the 
bowels ; and, as the two liquids open the crevices 
and folds of the mucous membrane or canal, every 
part of the latter is completely covered with the 
medicated oil, as with a covering of thin salve, oint- 
ment, or a poultice — in every nook and corner, just 
where it is most needed and where it should remain 
for its hygienic and healing effect. 

Every kindly aid should be given a diseased 
organ, mucous membrane, or the skin, even if one 
knows it is for relief only ; for the very aids that 
give relief are often essential when joined with 
medicinal or other treatment in effecting a cure. 

It is advantageous in treating bowel troubles to 
use a rather heavy, tenacious oil for a base — one 
that may not be so pleasant to swallow or to use 
externally as some of the lighter oils. It is there- 
fore advisable to have two kinds of Depurant Oil : 
one for internal use (by the mouth) and for the skin, 
the other for chronic disease of the lower bowel. 
165 



Intestinal Irrigation 

Depurant Oil is also excellent for application to 
the external ear, the nasal passages, throat, stomach, 
and bowels, as well as for uterine and vaginal use. 
It may also be used for massaging the skin, and 
for scalds, burns, wounds, and ulceration — in fact, 
in all conditions in which an antiseptic, soothing, 
nourishing, and protecting effect is essential to the 
tissues. 



166 



INTESTINAL ILLS 

By ALCINOUS B. JAMISON, M.D. 

244 pp. Cloth, $2.00, postpaid 

This new volume is a comprehensive work on PROC- 
TITIS (or chronic inflammation of the anus and rectum) 
and its numerous symptoms, such as chronic constipation, 
indigestion, biliousness, autogenetic poisons, diarrhea, 
auto-infection, auto-intoxication, uric acid, emaciation, an- 
emia, toxic neurasthenia, piles, etc. ; in a word, self-poison- 
ing of the individual due to undue retention of the feces. 

The book is the result of over twenty years' experi- 
ence in the treatment of Intestinal Ills ; it is therefore an 
eminently practical and valuable work. The author wishes 
to enlighten both the youth and the adult of either sex in 
regard to the most common ailment that afflicts mankind. 

The importance of this work is further shown by the 
following summary of the chapters : 



1. Man, Composed Almost 

Wholly of Water, Is 
Constipated. Why? 

2. The Physics of Digestion 

and Egestion. 

3. The Interdependence of 

the Anus, Rectum, Sig- 
moid Flexure, and 
Colon. 

4. Indigestion, Intestinal 

Gas, and Other Matters. 

5. Key to Auto-infection. 

6. How Auto-infection Af- 

fects the Gastric Diges- 
tion, and vice versa. 

7. How Auto-infection Af- 

fects Intestinal Diges- 
tion, and vice versa. 

8. The Cause of Constipation 

and How We Igno- 
rantly Treat It. 

167 



9. Cures for Constipation 
"Fearfully and Wonder- 
fully Made." 

10. Biliousness and Bilious 

Attacks. 

11. King Liver and Bile- 

bouncers. 

12. Semi-constipation and Its 

Dangers. 

13. The Etiology of the Most 

Common Form of Diar- 
rhea, i. e., Excessive In- 
testinal Peristalsis. 

14. Ballooning of the Rectum. 

15. Ballooning of the Rectum 

{Continued). 

16. Erroneous Diagnoses and 

Treatment of Bowel 
Troubles. 

17. Costiveness. 

18. Inflammation. 



19. Proctitis and Piles. 

20. Pruritus, or Itching of the 

Anus. 

21. Abscess and Fistula. 

22. The Origin and Use of 

the Enema. 
.23. How Often Should an 
Enema Be Taken. 

24. Physiological Irrigation. 

25. Proper Treatment for Dis- 



eases of the Anus and 
Rectum Very Essential. 

26. The Body's Book-keeping. 

27. Selection and Preparation 

of Food. 

28. Diet for Indigestion. 

29. Diet for Constipation. 

30. Costiveness, Diet, etc. 

31. Diet for Diarrhea. 

32. A Final Word. 



The key-note of the book is Proctitis. Hardly a 
civilized man escapes Proctitis from the day of the diaper 
to the day of death. The diaper is, in truth, chiefly re- 
sponsible for Proctitis, and Proctitis is in turn chiefly re- 
sponsible for chronic constipation, chronic diarrhea, and 
auto-infection ; hence for mal-assimilation, mal-nutrition, 
emaciation, anemia — for a thousand and one reflex func- 
tional derangements of the system. 

Millions of human beings are sent to untimely graves 
through these ailments. Indeed, the body of nearly every 
human being is a pest-house of absorbed poison, instead 
of being the worthy temple of a wondrous soul. All this 
is due to Proctitis. 



By the same author : 

How to Become Strong: 

Health Obtained; 111 Health Prevented 

A book of 64 pages on the Physiology, Anatomy, and 
Pathology of the Anus and Rectum, together with a 
description of Rectal and Anal Diseases — their Diagnosis 
and Treatment without Surgery. 

Eighth and enlarged edition, with over 100 illustrations 
and 125 testimonials. 

Price, 25 cents, postpaid. 

Address all orders to 

Alcinous B. Jamison, M.D., 

43 West 45th Street, 

New York, N. Y. 

168 



COMMENTS OF THE PRESS. 



Intestinal Ills is from the pen of a well-known phy- 
sician who for twenty years has treated intestinal and 
rectal diseases with a marked degree of success. His 
subject is handled in a clear and simple manner, making 
it a work well suited for non-professional readers as well 
as for physicians. Dr. Jamison's long experience as a 
specialist has convinced him that neglect of the bowels is 
the principal cause of # large proportion of the common 
ailments. The waste matter remaining too long in the 
system is taken up by the multitudinous rootlets which 
line the intestinal tract, resulting in auto- or self-poisoning 
of the system. His recommendations and suggestions 
are quite simple. He believes in drinking a large amount 
of water at stated intervals, and also in the frequent use 
of the enema. On arising and retiring he would have the 
patient slowly sip half a pint of hot or cold water — pref- 
erably hot. One hour before meals a glass of hot or 
cold water should be taken ; and, quite contrary to the 
teachings of many physicians, he advocates the drinking 
of copious draughts of water, of a temperature of about 
60 degrees, at meal-times. He, however, cautions his 
patients against washing down the food, which, in com- 
mon with other authorities, he holds should be slowly 
chewed and thoroughly masticated, so as to be well 
mixed with saliva before it is swallowed. Finally, he 
advises that water be freely taken whenever the system 
craves it, and if a person does not drink much he should 
accustom himself to do so. Seventy per cent, of the 

169 



Intestinal Irrigation 

human body is made up of water, and Dr. Jamison is 
persuaded that many persons become prematurely old 
through failing to take a proper amount of liquid. Be- 
sides, the drinking of large amounts of water assists 
Nature properly to perform the functions necessary to 
normal health. Full and clear directions are given for 
cleansing the bowels and for proper diet for patients. 
Indeed, the work consists of a comprehensive and thought- 
ful discussion of the intestinal organism, the diseases to 
which the patient is liable through its disorder, and the 
treatment that a score of years of practice has convinced 
him to be the most positive and effective in its results. 
If dyspeptics and those suffering through auto-poisoning 
arising from a disordered condition of the intestinal tract 
should discontinue drugs and faithfully follow the direc- 
tions given in this book they would doubtless soon ex- 
perience great and permanent benefit. — B. O. FLOWER, in 
The Arena, New York. 

The eighth (enlarged) edition of How to Become Strong 
has just been issued. It is a most interesting and signifi- 
cant production. Emanating from the pen of a medical 
doctor of recognized standing, it embodies a radical de- 
parture from orthodox conclusions. Although this is an 
age of " specialism," yet a practitioner of medicine who 
assumes to cure rectal diseases without the use of surgery 
must certainly be regarded as a heretic in old-school cir- 
cles. The sub-title— " Health Obtained; Ill-health Pre- 
vented " — seems fully warranted by the sixteen pages of 
unsolicited testimonials appended to the book. We sus- 
pect that the author is a physician who unconsciously 
applies the principles of mental science in his practice. 
In fact, all genuine healing, no matter under what form 
it is accomplished, is more or less the result of silent 
mental action. Dr. Jamison's book contains over a hun- 

170 



Comments of the Press 

dred illustrations and is beautifully printed. — JOHN 
Emery McLean, in Mind, New York. 

In Intestinal Ills, Dr. Jamison, well known as a special- 
ist in intestinal disorders, considers chronic constipation, 
indigestion, autogenetic poisons, diarrhea, piles, etc., also 
auto-infection, auto-intoxication, anemia, emaciation, etc., 
due to proctitis and colitis. In fact, the work is really a 
treatise on proctitis (inflammation of the intestine) and 
colitis (inflammation of the colon) and the more common 
complications of these intestinal inflammations. In call- 
ing attention to the prevalence of proctitis and colitis, 
and in stating so plainly the causes and the disastrous 
consequences of these conditions, Dr. Jamison has ren- 
dered an immense service not only to the laity, for whom 
the work was prepared, but to the medical profession as 
well. I do not hesitate to say that I regard this book as 
one of the most important contributions to medicine 
since the publication of Ch. Bouchard's great work, Auto- 
intoxication. To all interested in the acquirement or pres- 
ervation of health a careful study of Intestinal Ills is not 
only advisable but indispensable. To nurses and medical 
students it will be invaluable. Had I read it in my 
student days it would have saved me years of groping. 
The practical doctor will find in it the solution of some 
of his most difficult problems. It is one of the most 
valuable books on hygiene that I have ever seen. I pre- 
dict for it a large sale and a wide influence. — Health Cult- 
ure, New York. 

Intestinal Ills is a timely book, and one that should com- 
mand universal attention. It deals with the fundamental 
cause of nine-tenths of the diseases that afflict the human 
family, in a comprehensive yet thoroughly lucid manner. 
It should possess marked interest for both the medical 

171 



Intestinal Irrigation 

profession and the laity, and there are but few of the 
latter who will not realize that the author has struck the 
key-note of a large proportion of their troubles. Particu- 
larly pertinent are the chapters dealing with the danger 
of auto-infection, from an overloaded intestinal canal, 
and the necessity of keeping that outlet in a cleanly con- 
dition and promoting the elimination of waste material 
by every means at command. The sooner people realize 
that a clean intestinal canal is the next thing to a guar- 
anty of good health, the sooner a better condition of 
health will prevail. It is the bounden duty of the medi- 
cal profession to pay more attention to this subject than 
they have done, and it will not be the fault of the author 
of this work if they are not stimulated to action in the 
matter. The book contains a number of vital truths, and 
should be read by all who value their health. — Health, 
New York. 

Intestinal Ills is a volume of two hundred and forty-four 
pages devoted to a most important subject. It treats of 
proctitis and its numerous symptoms, among which may 
be numbered some of the most common and most dis- 
tressing complaints. The author is Alcinous B. Jamison, 
M.D., of this city, whose pamphlet, How to Become Strong, 
has reached a circulation of a hundred thousand copies. 
Intestinal Ills is written for and commended to the lay 
reader, and, being the result of more than twenty years' 
experience, the book may confidently be expected to ex- 
ert a powerful influence for good. — New York Observer, 

Dr. Jamison, in his able and drastic style, reviews the 
various ills which befall the human race, and comes to the 
conclusion that chronic constipation, indigestion, diar- 
rhea, piles, etc., also auto-infection, auto-intoxication, 
anemia, emaciation, etc., are due to proctitis and colitis. 
— The Kneipp Water-Cure Monthly. 

172 



Comments of the Press 

The author, in this little volume, gives his experience 
in the treatment of intestinal ills. The key-note of the 
book is proctitis. It contains thirty-two chapters, and in 
a concise manner covers the whole field in an interesting 
way. His views may differ from those of his readers, 
but, even though this be the case, one will certainly ad- 
mire the way the author expresses himself. His style is 
delightful, and between the covers of the book the reader 
will find much that is original and novel. The author's 
experience extends over a period of twenty years, and 
this is a sufficient assurance that he knows whereof he 
speaks. — Experience, St. Louis, Mo. 

This little book of two hundred and forty-four pages 
is handsomely made. Intestinal Ills deals with a class 
of disorders hitherto unnoticed and even now receiving 
but a small part of the attention deserved. The author 
speaks positively, perhaps to the point of exaggeration at 
times, but it is a case where exaggeration is justifiable 
and perhaps necessary. A careful reading of the book 
will add to the physician's income, and at the same time 
lessen those distressing ills resulting from imperfect di- 
gestion and auto-intoxication. — The Medical Herald, St. 
Joseph, Mo. 



173 



INDIVIDUAL APPRECIATION. 



Studio, 58 W. 57TH Street, New York, 
April 3, 1901. 

Dr. Jamison — 

My Dear Sir : This morning I received a letter from 
my father, telling me how well and how comfortable he 
has been since you treated him. I desire, personally, to 
thank you for your able care of him and to congratulate 
you upon possessing a degree of skill that can so alleviate 
human suffering. 

I have read with great interest the book, Intestinal Ills, 
which you gave me, and it seems to me that if the Ameri- 
can Tract Society would obtain consent from you to pub- 
lish the work far and wide among our people, instead 
of sending alphabetical pocket handkerchiefs to our un- 
educated, its managers would fill a far more useful sphere. 
Your book seems to me full of the most useful informa- 
tion, and I am much indebted to you for it. Any one 
who can alleviate " the ills that flesh is heir to," and so 
simply, is in reality a benefactor of mankind. 

Believe me, with much regard, yours sincerely, 

Carroll Beckwith. 1 



Waukesha, Wis., May 22, 1901. 

Dr. Alcinous B. Jamison — 

Dear Sir : I have just finished reading your Intestinal 
Ills, and I must say it is the best work upon the subject I 
have ever read. There is a large amount of entirely new 
matter contained in the book, and it is a valuable aid that 

' One of the most successful and noted portrait artists of New York City. 
-A. B. J. 

17+ 



Individual Appreciation 

should be read by every physician. No medical library is 
complete without it. 

The little book, How to Become Strong, is also a fine 
treatise, and worth far more than it costs. 

Yours very truly, 

I. J. Eales, M.D., D.O., D.P. 1 



New York City, March 9, 1903. 

My Dear Dr. Jamison : 

Of all ills that flesh is heir to, I believe none have 
ever been so intelligently, and for the general public 
so lucidly, expounded as the ills of the intestines in your 
book, entitled Intestinal Ills. It is a work peculiarly 
fitted for every household, inasmuch as I dare state, al- 
though as a layman, there is not in the civilized world — 
and I have no doubt in the heathen world — a single fam- 
ily of which the majority are not afflicted thus ; and the 
ignorance thereof is most deplorable. 

Your book will spread a light on these subjects, which 
it would be well for all students of medicine as well as 
your professional brethren to hail ; and it is so natural to 
infer how intelligently and conscientiously you have car- 
ried on your practice all these years. 

For myself, I have kind Providence and your own skill- 
ful treatment to be thankful to for health that has never 
been so good since I was a child ; and this statement cer- 
tainly implies that my intestinal ills date from those happy 
years. With respect and gratitude, I am yours sincerely, 

J. Alfred Mohlte. 8 

1 Co-author of a standard anatomical and physiological encyclopedic 
chart of the human body. — A. B. J. 

2 Mr. Mohlte is widely known through his magnificent portraits and 
beautiful mural decorations. He assisted the late V. Tojetti, whose exqui- 
site work in mural painting and in the beautiful portraiture of women 
earned for him a national reputation. Was a pupil, in Paris, of Benjamin 
Constant and Jean Paul Laurens. — A. B. J. 

175 



Intestinal Irrigation 

Boston, 87 Broad Street, April 18, 1901. 

A. B. Jamison, M.D. — 

My Dear Sir : I have read Intestinal Ills with a degree 
of satisfaction I seldom experience. I am now firmly 
impressed with the belief that, if one will religiously live 
up to the tenets of your doctrine, sickness for him will be 
reduced to a minimum and he will be blessed with an 
abundance of health that will greatly prolong his life. 

I wish every one might read the work ; it is full of in- 
terest from cover to cover — not couched in the language 
of Materia Medica, which would render the meaning diffi- 
cult, but simple of understanding and lucid. 

I feel the added knowledge I possess of myself from the 
reading of this little book is of inestimable value, and shall 
take pleasure in recommending it to my friends. 

Wishing you the fullest measure of success in your 
efforts to alleviate human suffering, believe me, very sin- 
cerely yours, 

Caleb Chase. 



Denver, Colo., March 11, 1903. 

My Dear Dr. Jamison : 

I have read your book, Intestinal Ills, with great inter- 
est, and am struck with wonderment at your knowledge 
of the conditions existing in the great intestinal country. 
Truly you are doing great good in getting at the univer- 
sal diseases — Proctitis and Colitis — and treating them so 
sensibly. Your system of cleansing within and without 
appeals to me strongly, and, as constipation is one of the 
greatest curses of the age, you should do a grand work. 
I know that anything put into the stomach cannot cure 
constipation. People must live rationally, eat clean food, 
exercise, and revel in water internally and externally, in 
order to keep well ; but if they have been brought up in 
ignorance, and have become victims of intestinal ills, they 

176 



Individual Appreciation 

can be cured by your methods, I know, and after a 
thorough cleansing live happily ever after. 
Yours very truly, 

Nannette Magruder Pratt. 1 



Norfolk, Va., April 2, 1901. 

Dr. A. B. Jamison — 

Dear Sir : After receiving Intestinal Ills and reading 
every word of it, I am convinced that nine-tenths of the 
diseases human nature is heir to result from the subject 
it treats on. It should be read by every one interested in 
a clean and healthy body ; for, without such, life has no 
joys or pleasures. Very truly yours, 

E. B. Downing. 



Oberlin, Ohio, May 7, 1901. 

Dr. A. B. Jamison — 

Dear Sir : Allow me to express the pleasure and profit 
I have received from reading your book, Intestinal Ills. 
It seems to me to be a timely, lucid, and valuable pres- 
entation of one of the most common and serious difficul- 
ties that afflict modern humanity. 

While some of the facts to which you have called 
attention will be doubted by common people, and even 
by some members of the medical profession, it is evident 
to my mind that you have dealt with actual and seri- 
ous conditions, and the public will some day awaken to 
the truthfulness and importance of the facts you have 
presented. Cordially yours, 

L. B. Sperry, A.M., M.D. 2 

1 A well-known writer and author of a book entitled The Body Beautiful. 
-A. B. J. 

2 A well-known scholar, teacher, physician, lecturer, and author of several 
valuable books. — A. B. J. 

177-" 



Intestinal Irrigation 

120 Broadway, N. Y. City, March 12, 1902. 

Dr. A. B. Jamison— 

Dear Sir : I have just finished reading Intestinal Ills, 
which I obtained from you three weeks ago. The orderly 
arrangement of its subject matter, its lucid and attractive 
style, its pat and helpful verbal illustrations, and its short, 
plain, but sufficient definitions of all technical words, make 
it easily understood from beginning to end, and especially 
commend it to the lay reader like myself. I am sure that 
the perusal of this book will disclose a new field of 
knowledge to most of its readers, which will be full of 
surprises, and will lead them to adopt the wise sugges- 
tions of the author. Very truly yours, 

Robert H. Duncan. 



Watertown, Mass., July 2, 1901. 

My Dear Dr. Jamison: 

I have read your book on Proctitis and its accompani- 
ments with a great deal of interest. The subject and its 
treatment by you are of importance to me, as you well 
know, and I must say I am well pleased with the way you 
handle it. The book must prove of considerable profit to 
innumerable sufferers, and you are to be congratulated on 
being able to present it in so clear a manner. 

With best wishes, I remain, yours truly, 

Herman Poole, F.C.S. 1 



Wheeling, W. Va., June 14, 1901. 

Alcinous B. Jamison, M.D.— 

Dear Doctor : Intestinal Ills came to hand. It is in- 
deed a most valuable book, and is fully up to my expec_ 

1 Member of American Chemical Society, the Chemical Society of 
London, Society of Chemical Industry, American Society of Mechanical 
Engineers, and American Gaslight Association. — A. B. J. 

1/8 



Individual Appreciation 

tations. I shall take pleasure in recommending the same 
to my friends. Yours truly, 

F. H. Hanke. 



Denver, Colo., April 23, igoi. 

Alcinous B. Jamison, M.D. — 

Dear Sir : I am in receipt of your book, Intestinal Ills, 
and after a careful perusal of the same have no hesitancy 
in pronouncing it a most excellent and instructive work, 
which merits an enormous sale both among the laity and 
the profession. Your review of the subject indicates vast 
research, wide experience, and correct conclusions derived 
therefrom, which are far more valuable to the investiga- 
tor than the guess-work and charlatanism of the past. 

Respectfully yours, 

Zach Shed. 1 



416 Vanderbilt Avenue, Brooklyn, May 23, 1901. 

My Dear Doctor : 

I am in receipt of your book, entitled Intestinal Ills, for 
which accept my thanks. It treats the subject in an 
entirely new light, and makes plain the cause of condi- 
tions that have heretofore been more or less vague. It 
would be well if every household possessed it — for in- 
struction upon a subject of which unfortunately very 
little is known to the majority of us. 

Very^ sincerely yours, 

John F. Pentz. 



New York City, April 20, 1903. 

My Dear Doctor Jamison : 

Many thanks for the book, Intestinal Ills, you so kindly 
sent me, and which I have read with a great deal of 

'A widely known editor and author. — A. B. J. 
!79 



Intestinal Irrigation 

pleasure. It is so clear and comprehensive, and so replete 
with sound, practical common sense, that it cannot fail to 
carry conviction. 

Believe me, sincerely, 

Deane Dossert. 1 



672 Bullitt Bldg., Philadelphia, Pa. 

Alcinous B. Jamison, M.D. — 

Dear Sir: Your books, Intestinal Ills and How to 
Become Strong, both came duly. There is so much in 
the former book which corresponds to my daily practice 
that it gives me great pleasure to thank you for having 
placed it before sufferers and readers in a clear and com- 
prehensive manner. 

How to Become Strong is a graphic description, illustra- 
tive of the parts, which must commend itself wherever it 
goes. 

I remain yours truly, 

Jones Wister. 



44 The Rembrandt," 
152 West 57TH Street, New York City, May 25, 1903. 

My Dear Doctor Jamison : 

Will you kindly send me another dozen copies of your 
invaluable work, Intestinal Ills ? 

Those previously purchased have been distributed to 
sufferers in this and other States, and in every instance I 
have received the grateful thanks of the recipients, to 
which is added their testimony as to the wonderful re- 
sults gained by following your instructions. 

While living in India I witnessed the method of wash- 

1 Mrs. Frank G. Dossert, the well-known concert soprano and vocal 
teacher of Carnegie Hall. — A. B. J. 

180 



Individual Appreciation 

ing the intestinal canal as practiced by those marvelous 
men, the Hatha Yogis, who live to such an advanced age 
that I will not name it lest it seem exaggeration. 

This led me to investigate your system, and I consider 
it a privilege to help humanity by placing your book in 
the hands of those who need it. 
Sincerely yours, 

Louise Katharine Harnett. 1 

1 Mrs. Harnett lived six years in India studying with the greatest teach- 
ers and is one of the best authorities in this country on the subject of India 
and the Science of Vibration. — A. B. J. 



181 



WHAT IS SAID OF THE INTERNAL 
FOUNTAIN BATH. 



22 Chapin Avenue, Providence, R. I., April 7, 1903. 

A. B. Jamison, M.D.— 

My Dear Sir : Your Internal Fountain Bath is a pro- 
nounced success. Having used several devices for the 
practice of " physiological irrigation," it gives me great 
pleasure to say that I find yours 
the most efficient and convenient 
of any with which I am acquainted. 

I note one special feature, which 
is of the first importance — one 
need not change position while 
using the device. The enema can 
be taken and followed by defeca- 
tion as many times as one desires 
without rising from the sitting 
posture, and finally the anus can 
be thoroughly cleansed, after the 
enema, by the jet of water from the rectal point. A very 
complete and satisfactory enema can be given to one lying 
in bed. 

I like the appliance better every time I use it. The 
introduction of the rectal point is much easier, and more 
certain every time, than with anything I have ever seen 
or used. As one seats himself upon the water-filled 
cushion, the anus is quite naturally open to receive the 
point, and, as the end of the metal tube bearing the point 

182 




The Internal Fountain Bath 

is depressed, the rectal point enters without the least 
obstruction, avoiding the necessity of twisting or bending 
the body. You have certainly succeeded most thoroughly, 
and have given the world a device difficult to excel. 
Wishing you great success, I am yours faithfully, 

John F. Caulkins. 



" The Schuyler," 
59 W. 45TH St., New York, March 10, 1903. 

My Dear Dr. Jamison : 

I have delayed sending you the " opinion " asked for, 
concerning your Internal Fountain Bath, in order that I 
might give it a thorough examination and trial. While hav- 
ing a firm belief in the maxim that " cleanliness is next to 
godliness," I have always felt that it applied only to ex- 
ternal habits — that Nature's purifying fluids and lubri- 
cants were all-sufficient for cleansing the inner man and 
regulating his expulsive processes. Yet I confess that 
the logic and forceful truths of your remarkable book, 
Intestinal Ills, are responsible for a modification of my 
views that led me in the first instance to experiment with 
the enema. Though not consciously a sufferer from any 
intestinal weakness or disorder calling for treatment, I 
find my personal comfort and happiness very greatly aug- 
mented since my use of your appliance began — a use 
that has increased in frequency as the delights and 
benefits of the internal bath were realized. These are 
undoubtedly cumulative ; hence, your invention's chief 
merit is its utility as a preventer of disease. I regard the 
appliance as an antidote to " civilization " — a device for 
overcoming the defects in our habits of life that for 
generations have been thrust upon us by " convention- 
ality " and other forms of tyranny ; and I do not hesitate 
to say to friends who have examined my syringe that the 

183 



Intestinal Irrigation 

inventor deserves enrolment among the benefactors of 
the race. Sincerely yours, 

John Emery McLean. 1 



50 Butler St., Brooklyn, N. Y., April 6, 1903. 

A. B. Jamison, M.D. — 

Dear Doctor : Owing to a local trouble, I have had to 
resort to some form of rectal injection twice daily, night 
and morning, for more than twenty-five years. I have 
tried about every form of syringe in the market ; so, when 
I say that your Internal Fountain Bath is the most 
serviceable appliance for intestinal irrigation in existence, 
you may be sure that I am competent to judge. Without 
rising from the toilet seat, I take from six to twelve 
injections, as suggesters, or provokers, relieving the 
bowels instantly each time by simply moving aside the 
handle projecting from between the knees. Finally I 
take a cleanser. The purity and clearness of my com- 
plexion and my hale and robust health are subjects of 
general remark. Had my bowels been neglected all 
these years, I would have been in my grave long ere 
this. It is a real pity that so many really needing your 
appliance do not know of its existence and value. 
Truly yours for human welfare, 

A. L. Leubuscher, LL.D. 



Yonkers, N. Y., 90 Ash Street, 
April 7, 1903. 

Dr. A. B. Jamison — 

Dear Sir : The Internal Fountain Bath invented by 
you is all that could be desired. I have tested it and find 

1 Managing editor of The Arena and Mind, widely circulated monthly 
magazines published in New York City, and a well-known literary expert. 
-A. B. J. 

184 



The Internal Fountain Bath 

it a most comfortable and convenient method of flushng 
the colon. I have used other methods, but for comfort, 
convenience, and cleanliness the Internal Fountain Bath 
has no equal. By its invention you have done much 
toward settling the question — Shall I take an enema ? 

Yours respectfully, 

William J. Webb. 



Chicago, May 19, 1903. 

My Dear Dr. Jamison : 

It gives me pleasure to tell you the merits of your great 
invention, the Internal Fountain Bath. When I have any 
tendency to indigestion, or constipation, a good " bath " 
gives prompt relief. In case of cold or headache, the 
same means brings a cure. For several weeks I used the 
device regularly, and took down my girth by three inches, 
and very greatly improved my general health and spirits, 
and cleared my brain. 

Faithfully and gratefully yours, 

E. B. Beckwith. 



Sharon, Mass., May 28, 1903. 

Dear Dr. Jamison : 

Your Internal Fountain Bath is a jewel and " gets 
there." I shall always be an enthusiastic patient and 
anxious to urge all similar sufferers to consult you. 
I remain very sincerely, 

Geo. A. Huntington. 



185 



AUG 12 1903 



